---
title: We often hear it said, that from the songs and stories of a country… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: We often hear it said, that from the songs and stories of a country we may learn much about the inner life of its people, inasmuch as popular utterances of this kind always bear the stamp of the national character, offer a reflex of the national mind. Who acts: We, present. A sentence of «Russian Fa
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 1, sentence 16

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We often hear it said, that from the songs and stories of a country we may learn much about the inner life of its people, inasmuch as popular utterances of this kind always bear the stamp of the national character, offer a reflex of the national mind.

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**Who acts:** We, present · **What happens:** hear, say, learn, bear, offer · **To what, where:** that, songs, stamp, reflex · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, present), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg22373:11:16
# text = We often hear it said, that from the songs and stories of a country we may learn much about the inner life of its people, inasmuch as popular utterances of this kind always bear the stamp of the national character, offer a reflex of the national mind.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	often	often	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	hear	hear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obj	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	_
19	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	inner	inner	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	inasmuch	inasmuch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
29	as	as	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	popular	popular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	utterances	utterance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	34	det	_	_
34	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
35	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	36	advmod	_	_
36	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	stamp	stamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	national	national	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
44	offer	offer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	conj	_	_
45	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	reflex	reflex	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obj	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	national	national	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | present | We |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | present | that |  | the songs and stories of a country |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent that=Topic |
| 3 | **learn** | may | we | the songs and stories of a country *not said here* |  |  |  | about the inner life of present's people and inasmuch | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent song=Topic |
| 4 | **bear** | infinitive | we *not said here* | the stamp of the national character |  |  |  | as popular utterances; of this kind; always *property* | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stamp=Patient |
| 5 | **offer** | infinitive | we *not said here* | a reflex of the national mind |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent reflex=Theme |

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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.

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**Text:** «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Project Gutenberg book 22373 (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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