Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 16, sentence 52
Whether he went early to the smithy or not, nothing prospered; and, instead of greeting the devil kindly, he went and took his very biggest hammer and knocked the devil three times on his forehead, and then set to work.
Who acts: man, nothing · What happens: go, prosper, greet, take, knock, set · To what, where: smithy, devil, biggest hammer, forehead
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, nothing), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whether | whether | SCONJ | _ | 3 went | mark |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 went | nsubj |
| 3 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 prospered | advcl |
| 4 | early | early | ADV | Degree=Pos | 3 went | advmod |
| 5 | to | to | ADP | _ | 7 smithy | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 smithy | det |
| 7 | smithy | smithy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 went | obl |
| 8 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 9 not | cc |
| 9 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 7 smithy | conj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
| 11 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 12 prospered | nsubj |
| 12 | prospered | prosper | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 13 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 18 greeting | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 greeting | cc |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 greeting | punct |
| 16 | instead | instead | ADV | ExtPos=SCONJ | 18 greeting | mark |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 instead | fixed |
| 18 | greeting | greet | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 12 prospered | ccomp |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 devil | det |
| 20 | devil | devil | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 greeting | obj |
| 21 | kindly | kindly | ADV | _ | 18 greeting | advmod |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 went | punct |
| 23 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 went | nsubj |
| 24 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 prospered | parataxis |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 took | cc |
| 26 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 went | conj |
| 27 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 hammer | nmod:poss |
| 28 | very | very | ADV | _ | 29 biggest | advmod |
| 29 | biggest | big | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 30 hammer | amod |
| 30 | hammer | hammer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 took | obj |
| 31 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 knocked | cc |
| 32 | knocked | knock | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 went | conj |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 devil | det |
| 34 | devil | devil | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 knocked | obj |
| 35 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 36 times | nummod |
| 36 | times | time | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 knocked | obl:unmarked |
| 37 | on | on | ADP | _ | 39 forehead | case |
| 38 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 39 forehead | nmod:poss |
| 39 | forehead | forehead | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 knocked | obl |
| 40 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 set | punct |
| 41 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 set | cc |
| 42 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 43 set | advmod |
| 43 | set | set | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 prospered | advcl |
| 44 | to | to | PART | _ | 45 work | mark |
| 45 | work | work | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 43 set | xcomp |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 prospered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | man | the smithy | early property | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to smithy=Initial_Location | |||
| 2 | prosper | past | nothing | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | greet speech: greet | gerund | nothing not said here | the devil | kindly property | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent devil=Theme | |||
| 4 | go | past | man | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | take | past | man not said here | man's biggest hammer | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hammer=Theme | ||||
| 6 | knock | past | man not said here | the devil | man's forehead | time | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent devil=Theme on forehead=Destination | ||
| 7 | set | infinitive | nothing not said here | then | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | work | to-infinitive | nothing not said here | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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.
Text: «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Project Gutenberg book 62509 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/16/52/