Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 39, sentence 149
_ Death is feminine in Russian and occurs all through the folk-lore as the visible figure of a skeleton whom they met by the way on the roadsides, and who may be cheated of her prey or dealt with like any other demon.
Who acts: Death, lore · What happens: be, occur, meet, cheat, deal, figure · To what, where: Russian, folk lore, skeleton, roadsides
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Death, lore), 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 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 2 Death | punct |
| 2 | Death | death | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 feminine | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 feminine | cop |
| 4 | feminine | feminine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | in | in | ADP | _ | 6 Russian | case |
| 6 | Russian | Russian | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 feminine | obl |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 occurs | cc |
| 8 | occurs | occur | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 feminine | conj |
| 9 | all | all | ADV | _ | 14 lore | advmod |
| 10 | through | through | ADP | _ | 14 lore | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 lore | det |
| 12 | folk | folk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 lore | compound |
| 13 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 12 folk | punct |
| 14 | lore | lore | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 occurs | obl |
| 15 | as | as | ADP | _ | 18 figure | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 figure | det |
| 17 | visible | visible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 figure | amod |
| 18 | figure | figure | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 occurs | obl |
| 19 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 skeleton | case |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 skeleton | det |
| 21 | skeleton | skeleton | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 figure | nmod |
| 22 | whom | whom | PRON | PronType=Rel | 24 met | obj |
| 23 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 met | nsubj |
| 24 | met | meet | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 skeleton | acl:relcl |
| 25 | by | by | ADP | _ | 27 way | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 way | det |
| 27 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 met | obl |
| 28 | on | on | ADP | _ | 30 roadsides | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 roadsides | det |
| 30 | roadsides | roadside | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 met | obl |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 cheated | punct |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 cheated | cc |
| 33 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 36 cheated | nsubj:pass |
| 34 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 36 cheated | aux |
| 35 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 36 cheated | aux:pass |
| 36 | cheated | cheat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 feminine | conj |
| 37 | of | of | ADP | _ | 39 prey | case |
| 38 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 39 prey | nmod:poss |
| 39 | prey | prey | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 cheated | obl |
| 40 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 41 dealt | cc |
| 41 | dealt | deal | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 36 cheated | conj |
| 42 | with | with | ADP | _ | 46 demon | case |
| 43 | like | like | ADP | _ | 46 demon | case |
| 44 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 46 demon | det |
| 45 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 demon | amod |
| 46 | demon | demon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 dealt | obl |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 feminine | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | Death | Russian | feminine property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | occur | present | Death not said here | the folk lore | as the visible figure of a skeleton | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through lore=Location | |||
| 3 | meet | past | lore | a skeleton | the roadsides | by the way | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Co-Agent | ||
| 4 | cheat | may · passive | of Death's prey; who nsubj:pass | vn cheat-10.6.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Source | |||||
| 5 | deal | participle | with any other demon | vn cope-83 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with demon=Theme | |||||
| 6 | figure | a skeleton | nom figure «communication transitive»: of=patient |
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.
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