---
title: It was said of him that, if he tried, he could breathe the roof off… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: It was said of him that, if he tried, he could breathe the roof off the house; also that he could lift himself up by the hair. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Hero, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/22/)

<!-- 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/) / 22

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was said of him that, if he tried, he could breathe the roof off the house; also that he could lift himself up by the hair.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** say, try, breathe, lift up · **To what, where:** strength, roof, prince · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (prince), 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:pg75089:9:22
# text = It was said of him that, if he tried, he could breathe the roof off the house; also that he could lift himself up by the hair.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	breathe	breathe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	off	off	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
21	also	also	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	lift	lift	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
26	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obj	_	_
27	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | strength |  |  |  | of prince; that *obj* | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Theme that=Manner |
| 2 | **try** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **breathe** | could | prince | the roof |  |  |  | off the house | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent roof=Theme |
| 4 | **lift up** | could | prince | prince |  |  |  | by the hair | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent himself=Theme by hair=Destination |

<!-- .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 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/21/)
- next →: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/23/)
- ↑ back to [A Chinese Hero](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/)