---
title: It was dark enough to prevent them from seeing Han Hsin at the heigh… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: It was dark enough to prevent them from seeing Han Hsin at the height and distance he was from them. Who acts: kite, Hsin. 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 85

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It was dark enough to prevent them from seeing Han Hsin at the height and distance he was from them.

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**Who acts:** kite, Hsin · **What happens:** be, prevent, see · **To what, where:** officers, Han Hsin, height

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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 (kite, 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:pg75089:9:85
# text = It was dark enough to prevent them from seeing Han Hsin at the height and distance he was from them.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
10	Han	Han	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	Hsin	Hsin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	height	height	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | kite |  |  |  |  | dark, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **prevent** | to-infinitive | kite *not said here* | officers *= officer* |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer they=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | gerund | kite *not said here* | Han Hsin |  | the height and distance |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hsin=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past | Hsin | the height and distance *not said here* |  |  |  | from officers *= officer* | tree rules |

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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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