Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 34, sentence 54
Then the Cossack looked back steadily, and saw the hayrick burning, and in the middle of the flame a fair maiden standing, saying in a threatening voice, “Cossack, good man, save me from death!”
Who acts: Cossack, hayrick, fair maiden standing · What happens: look back, see, burn, say, save · To what, where: hayrick, threatening voice, snake, middle · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cossack, hayrick, fair maiden standing), 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 | 4 looked | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 Cossack | det |
| 3 | Cossack | cossack | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 looked | nsubj |
| 4 | looked | look | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | back | back | ADV | _ | 6 steadily | advmod |
| 6 | steadily | steadily | ADV | _ | 4 looked | advmod |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 saw | punct |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 saw | cc |
| 9 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 looked | conj |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 hayrick | det |
| 11 | hayrick | hayrick | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 saw | obj |
| 12 | burning | burn | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 11 hayrick | acl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 save | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 save | cc |
| 15 | in | in | ADP | _ | 17 middle | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 middle | det |
| 17 | middle | middle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 save | obl |
| 18 | of | of | ADP | _ | 20 flame | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 flame | det |
| 20 | flame | flame | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 middle | nmod |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 24 standing | det |
| 22 | fair | fair | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 standing | amod |
| 23 | maiden | maiden | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 standing | amod |
| 24 | standing | standing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 save | nsubj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 saying | punct |
| 26 | saying | say | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 24 standing | acl |
| 27 | in | in | ADP | _ | 30 voice | case |
| 28 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 30 voice | det |
| 29 | threatening | threatening | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 voice | compound |
| 30 | voice | voice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 saying | obl |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 Cossack | punct |
| 32 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 33 Cossack | punct |
| 33 | Cossack | cossack | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 voice | conj |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 man | punct |
| 35 | good | good | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 man | amod |
| 36 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 voice | conj |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 save | punct |
| 38 | save | save | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 looked | parataxis |
| 39 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 38 save | obj |
| 40 | from | from | ADP | _ | 41 death | case |
| 41 | death | death | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 save | obl |
| 42 | ! | ! | PUNCT | _ | 38 save | punct |
| 43 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 looked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | look back | past | the Cossack | then | steadily property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | see | past | the Cossack not said here | the hayrick | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hayrick=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | burn | gerund | the hayrick not said here | vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | say speech: assert | gerund | a fair maiden standing not said here | a threatening voice and Cossack and good man | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in voice=Manner | ||||
| 5 | save in a quote | infinitive | a fair maiden standing | snake | the middle of the flame | from death | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent i=Theme from death=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/pg62509/34/54/