Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 21, sentence 39

But, as old age crept on, they, for some reason, began to become poor; and they became so poor that Nicholas, from a famous merchant, became a mere tradesman, and they only had one little shop, and in the shop there was a chest of tobacco, a few nails, and a little iron.

Who acts: old age, mother, chest · What happens: creep on, begin, become, have, be · To what, where: mother, famous merchant, mere tradesman, one little shop, shop

This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old age, mother, chest), 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	But	but	CCONJ	_	6 crept	cc
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 crept	punct
3	as	as	SCONJ	_	6 crept	mark
4	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 age	amod
5	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 crept	nsubj
6	crept	creep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	on	on	ADV	_	6 crept	advmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 they	punct
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 crept	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 reason	punct
11	for	for	ADP	_	13 reason	case
12	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	13 reason	det
13	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 crept	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 began	punct
15	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 crept	parataxis
16	to	to	PART	_	17 become	mark
17	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 began	xcomp
18	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 become	xcomp
19	;	;	PUNCT	_	22 became	punct
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 became	cc
21	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 became	nsubj
22	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 crept	parataxis
23	so	so	ADV	_	24 poor	advmod
24	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 became	xcomp
25	that	that	SCONJ	_	26 Nicholas	mark
26	Nicholas	Nicholas	PROPN	Number=Sing	24 poor	advcl
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	31 merchant	punct
28	from	from	ADP	_	31 merchant	case
29	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	31 merchant	det
30	famous	famous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 merchant	amod
31	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 became	obl
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 became	punct
33	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 became	conj
34	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	36 tradesman	det
35	mere	mere	ADJ	Degree=Pos	36 tradesman	amod
36	tradesman	tradesman	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 became	xcomp
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 had	punct
38	and	and	CCONJ	_	41 had	cc
39	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 had	nsubj
40	only	only	ADV	_	41 had	advmod
41	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 became	conj
42	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	44 shop	nummod
43	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	44 shop	amod
44	shop	shop	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 had	obj
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 was	punct
46	and	and	CCONJ	_	51 was	cc
47	in	in	ADP	_	49 shop	case
48	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	49 shop	det
49	shop	shop	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 was	obl
50	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	51 was	expl
51	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	41 had	parataxis
52	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	53 chest	det
53	chest	chest	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 was	nsubj
54	of	of	ADP	_	55 tobacco	case
55	tobacco	tobacco	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 chest	nmod
56	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 nails	punct
57	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	59 nails	det
58	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	59 nails	amod
59	nails	nail	NOUN	Number=Plur	53 chest	conj
60	,	,	PUNCT	_	64 iron	punct
61	and	and	CCONJ	_	64 iron	cc
62	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	64 iron	det
63	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	64 iron	amod
64	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 crept	obl
65	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 crept	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	creep on	past	old age	mother		for some reason; a little iron obl	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	begin	past					vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	become	to-infinitive				poor property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
4	become	past	mother		a famous merchant	poor property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
5	become	past	mother not said here	a mere tradesman			vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
6	have	past	mother	one little shop			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shop=Patient
7	be	past	a chest of tobacco and a few nails		the shop; there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in shop=Location

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/pg62509/21/39/

🌲 Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 21, sentence 39

The tree

Pragmatics

Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 21, sentence 39