---
title: Many plans were formed, but the soldiers of the clan seemed to posse… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: Many plans were formed, but the soldiers of the clan seemed to possess charmed lives. Who acts: soldiers. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Chinese Hero, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/78/)

<!-- 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/) / 78

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Chinese Hero, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Many plans were formed, but the soldiers of the clan seemed to possess charmed lives.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** soldiers · **What happens:** form, seem, possess, charm · **To what, where:** Many plans, charmed lives

<!-- .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 (soldiers), 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:pg75089:9:78
# text = Many plans were formed, but the soldiers of the clan seemed to possess charmed lives.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	plans	plan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	formed	form	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	clan	clan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	possess	possess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	charmed	charm	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **form** | past · passive |  | Many plans |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **seem** | past | the soldiers of the clan |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **possess** | to-infinitive | the soldiers of the clan *not said here* | charmed lives |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot life=Theme |
| 4 | **charm** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/77/)
- next →: [sentence 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/79/)
- ↑ back to [A Chinese Hero](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/9/)