---
title: As he poured the earth into the hole, he kept stirring the ball arou… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: As he poured the earth into the hole, he kept stirring the ball around, thereby keeping it on top of the earth until he could reach it with his hand. Who acts: Han. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Hero, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Gleanings from Chinese folklore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/) / [A Chinese Hero](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/) / 14

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As he poured the earth into the hole, he kept stirring the ball around, thereby keeping it on top of the earth until he could reach it with his hand.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Han · **What happens:** pour, keep, stir around, reach · **To what, where:** earth, hole, ball, top

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Hero. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Han), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:9:14
# text = As he poured the earth into the hole, he kept stirring the ball around, thereby keeping it on top of the earth until he could reach it with his hand.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	poured	pour	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	stirring	stir	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	xcomp	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	around	around	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	thereby	thereby	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pour** | past | Han | the earth |  | the hole |  |  | vn pour-9.5 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent earth=Theme into hole=Destination |
| 2 | **keep** | past | Han |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **stir around** | gerund | Han *not said here* | the ball |  |  |  | around *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus ball=Experiencer |
| 4 | **keep** | gerund | Han *not said here* | earth |  | top of the earth |  | thereby *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme on top=Location |
| 5 | **reach** | could | Han | earth |  |  |  | with Han's hand | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/15/)
- ↑ back to [A Chinese Hero](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/)