---
title: How can there be wisdom in such a small boy? — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: How can there be wisdom in such a small boy? A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Hero, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 27

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How can there be wisdom in such a small boy?

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**What happens:** be · **To what, where:** wisdom

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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: 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:pg75089:9:27
# text = How can there be wisdom in such a small boy?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	0	root	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	10	det:predet	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | infinitive |  | wisdom |  |  |  |  | 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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