---
title: Hardly had he taken a sip when the little sparrow called out, “Who a… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Hardly had he taken a sip when the little sparrow called out, “Who are you? Who acts: goose, you. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, The Wild Goose and the Sparrow, sentence 9

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Hardly had he taken a sip when the little sparrow called out, “Who are you?

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**Who acts:** goose, you · **What happens:** take, call out, be · **To what, where:** sip, little sparrow · **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 (goose, 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:pg75089:8:9
# text = Hardly had he taken a sip when the little sparrow called out, “Who are you?
1	Hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sip	sip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	parataxis	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past · perfect | goose | a sip |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent sip=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **call out** *speech: assert* | participle · passive |  | the little sparrow |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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