---
title: You also know the saying of the Ancients, ‘If you stand on a mountai… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: You also know the saying of the Ancients, ‘If you stand on a mountain and talk to the people in the valley they cannot hear you,’” and the wild goose took another drink. Who acts: You, people, wild goose. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Wild Goose and the
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow, sentence 19

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You also know the saying of the Ancients, ‘If you stand on a mountain and talk to the people in the valley they cannot hear you,’” and the wild goose took another drink.

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**Who acts:** You, people, wild goose · **What happens:** know, stand, talk, not hear, take, say · **To what, where:** saying, mountain, valley, you, drink, Ancients · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, people, wild goose), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:8:19
# text = You also know the saying of the Ancients, ‘If you stand on a mountain and talk to the people in the valley they cannot hear you,’” and the wild goose took another drink.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	also	also	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	saying	saying	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Ancients	ancient	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	stand	stand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl:relcl	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	goose	goose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
38	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	39	det	_	_
39	drink	drink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | You | the saying of the Ancients |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  | a mountain |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on mountain=Location |
| 3 | **talk** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  | the valley |  | to the people | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to people=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **not** **hear** | can | people | you |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer you=Stimulus |
| 5 | **take** *in a quote* | past | the wild goose | another drink |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent drink=Theme |
| 6 | **say** |  |  | the Ancients |  |  |  |  | nom saying «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Project Gutenberg book 75089 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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