---
title: But Han Hsin was not an ordinary man and he commanded every man to g… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: But Han Hsin was not an ordinary man and he commanded every man to get a board of some kind and in the darkness to swim across quietly. Who acts: Han Hsin, Hsin. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Hero, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 59

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But Han Hsin was not an ordinary man and he commanded every man to get a board of some kind and in the darkness to swim across quietly.

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**Who acts:** Han Hsin, Hsin · **What happens:** not be, command, get, swim · **To what, where:** ordinary man, man, board · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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: who acts (Han Hsin, Hsin), 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:pg75089:9:59
# text = But Han Hsin was not an ordinary man and he commanded every man to get a board of some kind and in the darkness to swim across quietly.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	Han	Han	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Hsin	Hsin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	board	board	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
20	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	acl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	_
27	across	across	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | Han Hsin | a ordinary man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **command** | past | Hsin | every man |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 3 | **get** | to-infinitive | Hsin *not said here* | a board |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer board=Stimulus |
| 4 | **swim** | to-infinitive | Hsin *not said here* |  |  |  |  | quietly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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