---
title: All the comfort they could get was his reply, “When defeat comes we… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: All the comfort they could get was his reply, “When defeat comes we will discuss the question.” Who acts: officers, comfort, defeat, we. 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 63

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All the comfort they could get was his reply, “When defeat comes we will discuss the question.”

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**Who acts:** officers, comfort, defeat, we · **What happens:** get, be, come, discuss · **To what, where:** comfort, reply, question · **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 (officers, comfort, defeat, we), 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:pg75089:9:63
# text = All the comfort they could get was his reply, “When defeat comes we will discuss the question.”
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	3	det:predet	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	comfort	comfort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	acl:relcl	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	defeat	defeat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	discuss	discuss	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | could | officers *= officer* | all comfort *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer comfort=Stimulus |
| 2 | **be** *speech: assert* | past | all comfort | Han's reply |  |  |  | Han *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** *in a quote* | present | defeat |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **discuss** *speech: other* *in a quote* | future | we | the question |  |  |  |  | vn chit\_chat-37.6-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent question=Topic |

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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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