Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 21, sentence 68
Soon they arrived: it may be near, it may be far—the tale is soon told, but the deed is not soon done—and suddenly robbers came upon them and plundered them of all their goods: and only left themselves alive and unscathed.
Who acts: wares, sail, robbers · What happens: arrive, be, tell, not do, come, plunder · To what, where: tale, deed, wares · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (wares, sail, robbers), 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 | Soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 3 arrived | advmod |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 arrived | nsubj |
| 3 | arrived | arrive | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 8 near | punct |
| 5 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 near | nsubj |
| 6 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 8 near | aux |
| 7 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 8 near | cop |
| 8 | near | near | ADV | _ | 3 arrived | advmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 far | punct |
| 10 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 far | nsubj |
| 11 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 13 far | aux |
| 12 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 13 far | cop |
| 13 | far | far | ADV | Degree=Pos | 19 told | advmod |
| 14 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 19 told | punct |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 tale | det |
| 16 | tale | tale | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 told | nsubj:pass |
| 17 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 19 told | aux:pass |
| 18 | soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 19 told | advmod |
| 19 | told | tell | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 arrived | advcl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 done | punct |
| 21 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 27 done | cc |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 deed | det |
| 23 | deed | deed | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 done | nsubj:pass |
| 24 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 27 done | aux:pass |
| 25 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 27 done | advmod |
| 26 | soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 27 done | advmod |
| 27 | done | do | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 arrived | conj |
| 28 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 32 came | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 robbers | cc |
| 30 | suddenly | suddenly | ADV | _ | 31 robbers | advmod |
| 31 | robbers | robber | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 came | nsubj |
| 32 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 arrived | conj |
| 33 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 34 them | case |
| 34 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 came | obl |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 plundered | cc |
| 36 | plundered | plunder | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 came | conj |
| 37 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 plundered | obj |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 41 goods | case |
| 39 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 41 goods | det:predet |
| 40 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 41 goods | nmod:poss |
| 41 | goods | goods | NOUN | Number=Ptan | 36 plundered | obl |
| 42 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 45 left | punct |
| 43 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 45 left | cc |
| 44 | only | only | ADV | _ | 45 left | advmod |
| 45 | left | leave | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 arrived | conj |
| 46 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 45 left | obj |
| 47 | alive | alive | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 left | xcomp |
| 48 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 49 unscathed | cc |
| 49 | unscathed | unscathed | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 alive | conj |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 arrived | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | arrive | past | wares = ware | soon property | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is | may | sail | near property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | is | may | sail | far property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | tell speech: assert | present · passive | the tale | soon property | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient | ||||
| 5 | not do | present · passive | the deed | soon property | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality | ||||
| 6 | come | past | robbers | upon wares = ware | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon they=Location | ||||
| 7 | plunder | past | robbers not said here | wares = ware | of wares's goods | vn deprive-10.6.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Source of goods=Theme | |||
| 8 | leave | past | wares = ware not said here | wares = ware | alive property | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme |
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/pg62509/21/68/