Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 28, sentence 80

Then he sent his father a letter in this wise: “Do you cure my stepmother with a twelve-tongued whip—this is the best means of curing her illness.”

Who acts: son, you, this · What happens: send, cure, be · To what, where: father, wise, stepmother, illness · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, you, this), 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	Then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 sent	advmod
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 sent	nsubj
3	sent	send	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 father	nmod:poss
5	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sent	obj
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 letter	det
7	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sent	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 wise	case
9	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	10 wise	nsubj
10	wise	wise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 sent	obl
11	:	:	PUNCT	_	15 cure	punct
12	“	"	PUNCT	_	15 cure	punct
13	Do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 cure	aux
14	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	15 cure	nsubj
15	cure	cure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 sent	conj
16	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 stepmother	nmod:poss
17	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 cure	obj
18	with	with	ADP	_	23 whip	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	23 whip	det
20	twelve	twelve	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	22 tongued	nummod
21	-	-	PUNCT	_	20 twelve	punct
22	tongued	tongued	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 whip	amod
23	whip	whip	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 cure	obl
24	—	-	PUNCT	_	29 means	punct
25	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	29 means	nsubj
26	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	29 means	cop
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 best	det
28	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	29 means	nsubj
29	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 sent	parataxis
30	of	of	SCONJ	_	31 curing	mark
31	curing	cure	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	29 means	advcl
32	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	33 illness	nmod:poss
33	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 curing	obj
34	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 sent	punct
35	”	"	PUNCT	_	3 sent	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send	past	son	son's father	wise this	then	a letter obj	tree rules
2	cure in a quote	present · do-support	you	my stepmother			with a tongued whip	vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer stepmother=Source
3	is in a quote	present	this				mean property	tree rules
4	cure in a quote	gerund	this not said here	stepmother's illness				vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer illness=Source

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/pg62509/28/80/

🌲 Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 28, sentence 80

The tree

Pragmatics

Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 28, sentence 80