---
title: His officers and men protested, and said that he was not leaving any… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: His officers and men protested, and said that he was not leaving any path for retreat in case of defeat, as they had no ships or bridges and few could swim so far. Who acts: officers, Han, few. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Hero, with its dependen
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/62/)

<!-- 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/) / 62

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His officers and men protested, and said that he was not leaving any path for retreat in case of defeat, as they had no ships or bridges and few could swim so far.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** officers, Han, few · **What happens:** protest, say, not leave, have, swim · **To what, where:** path, case, ships · **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 (officers, Han, few), 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:pg75089:9:62
# text = His officers and men protested, and said that he was not leaving any path for retreat in case of defeat, as they had no ships or bridges and few could swim so far.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	officers	officer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
5	protested	protest	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
14	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
15	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	retreat	retreat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	defeat	defeat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
26	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	27	det	_	_
27	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	bridges	bridge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
34	so	so	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **protest** *speech: disagree* | past | Han's officers and men |  |  |  |  |  | vn rebel-71.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **leave** | past · progressive | Han | any path |  | case of defeat |  | for retreat | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent path=Theme in case=Location |
| 4 | **have** | past | officers *= officer* | no ships or bridges |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ship=Patient |
| 5 | **swim** | could | few |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/61/)
- next →: [sentence 63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/63/)
- ↑ back to [A Chinese Hero](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/)