---
title: As a family, you sparrows are selfish; you gossip, chatter, steal, a… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: As a family, you sparrows are selfish; you gossip, chatter, steal, and drive away every one else, only thinking of your own good. Who acts: sparrows, you. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow, sentence 40

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As a family, you sparrows are selfish; you gossip, chatter, steal, and drive away every one else, only thinking of your own good.

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**Who acts:** sparrows, you · **What happens:** be, gossip, chatter, steal, drive away, think · **To what, where:** selfish, one

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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 (sparrows, you), 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:pg75089:8:40
# text = As a family, you sparrows are selfish; you gossip, chatter, steal, and drive away every one else, only thinking of your own good.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
6	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	selfish	selfish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	gossip	gossip	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	chatter	chatter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	parataxis	_	_
19	away	away	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	det	_	_
21	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	xcomp	_	_
22	else	else	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	only	only	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | sparrows | selfish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **gossip** *speech: other* | present | you |  |  |  |  | as a family | vn chit\_chat-37.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **chatter** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **steal** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **drive away** | infinitive |  | every one |  |  |  | away *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | of your own good | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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