---
title: On reaching the steepest place in ascending the mountains, he comman… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: On reaching the steepest place in ascending the mountains, he commanded the army to halt and fill the bags with earth. Who acts: army, steepest place. 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 70

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On reaching the steepest place in ascending the mountains, he commanded the army to halt and fill the bags with earth.

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**Who acts:** army, steepest place · **What happens:** reach, ascend, command, halt, fill · **To what, where:** steepest place, mountains, army, bags · **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 (army, steepest place), 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:pg75089:9:70
# text = On reaching the steepest place in ascending the mountains, he commanded the army to halt and fill the bags with earth.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	reaching	reach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	steepest	steep	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	ascending	ascend	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	halt	halt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	fill	fill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	bags	bag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | gerund | army *not said here* | the steepest place |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent place=Theme |
| 2 | **ascend** | gerund | the steepest place *not said here* | the mountains |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mountain=Trajectory |
| 3 | **command** | past | army | the army |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent army=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **halt** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | army *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **fill** | infinitive | army *not said here* | the bags |  |  |  | with earth | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent bag=Patient with earth=Instrument |

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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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