---
title: When urged to kill his old enemy he said, “No, let him go, for he wi… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: When urged to kill his old enemy he said, “No, let him go, for he will kill himself, and that will be better.” Who acts: Han, that. 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 91

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When urged to kill his old enemy he said, “No, let him go, for he will kill himself, and that will be better.”

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**Who acts:** Han, that · **What happens:** urge, kill, say, let, go, be · **To what, where:** old enemy, Han · **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 (Han, that), 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:pg75089:9:91
# text = When urged to kill his old enemy he said, “No, let him go, for he will kill himself, and that will be better.”
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	urged	urge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	kill	kill	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	14	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
22	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	nsubj	_	_
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
28	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **urge** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **kill** | to-infinitive |  | Han's old enemy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Han | Han's old enemy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | Han |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | Han *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **kill** *in a quote* | future | Han | Han |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 7 | **is** *in a quote* | future | that |  |  |  |  | good *property* | 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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