---
title: So, before the battle was fought, Han Hsin had written, in honey, on… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: So, before the battle was fought, Han Hsin had written, in honey, on a big stone slab near the ford, these four words, “Heaven Destroy Hsiang Yi.” 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 94

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So, before the battle was fought, Han Hsin had written, in honey, on a big stone slab near the ford, these four words, “Heaven Destroy Hsiang Yi.”

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**What happens:** fight, write · **To what, where:** battle, Han, honey

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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: 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:pg75089:9:94
# text = So, before the battle was fought, Han Hsin had written, in honey, on a big stone slab near the ford, these four words, “Heaven Destroy Hsiang Yi.”
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	fought	fight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	Han	Han	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	Hsin	Hsin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	flat	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	honey	honey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	slab	slab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	parataxis	_	_
22	near	near	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	ford	ford	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
27	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	Heaven	Heaven	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	Destroy	Destroy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	Hsiang	Hsiang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	appos	_	_
34	Yi	Yi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | past · passive |  | the battle |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **write** | past · perfect · passive |  | Han |  | honey |  | a big stone slab near the ford and this four words *parataxis* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in honey=Destination |

<!-- .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.

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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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