---
title: When Han Hsin was presented to this Prince by his teachers as a wise… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: When Han Hsin was presented to this Prince by his teachers as a wise man and one who could help him make his country strong, he laughed and said, “What can such a boy do? Who acts: teachers, wise man, prince, boy. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Her
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/25/)

<!-- 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/) / 25

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When Han Hsin was presented to this Prince by his teachers as a wise man and one who could help him make his country strong, he laughed and said, “What can such a boy do?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** teachers, wise man, prince, boy · **What happens:** present, help, make, laugh, say, do · **To what, where:** Han, Prince, country · **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 (teachers, wise man, prince, boy), 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:pg75089:9:25
# text = When Han Hsin was presented to this Prince by his teachers as a wise man and one who could help him make his country strong, he laughed and said, “What can such a boy do?
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	Han	Han	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	Hsin	Hsin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	presented	present	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	teachers	teacher	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	conj	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
32	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	38	obj	_	_
34	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
35	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	37	det:predet	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
38	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **present** | past · passive | prince's teachers | Han | this Prince |  |  | as a wise man | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Theme to prince=Recipient |
| 2 | **help** | could | a wise man | prince |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | infinitive | prince *not said here* | prince's country |  |  |  | strong *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset country=Product |
| 4 | **laugh** | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **do** *in a quote* | can | such boy |  |  |  |  | What *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/24/)
- next →: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/26/)
- ↑ back to [A Chinese Hero](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/)