---
title: But the stories of this class are often nothing more than comparativ… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: But the stories of this class are often nothing more than comparatively modern adaptations of old and foreign themes; nor are they sufficiently numerous, so far as we can judge from existing collections, to render by any means complete the national portrait for which they are expected to supply the 
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 1, sentence 19

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But the stories of this class are often nothing more than comparatively modern adaptations of old and foreign themes; nor are they sufficiently numerous, so far as we can judge from existing collections, to render by any means complete the national portrait for which they are expected to supply the materials.

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**Who acts:** stories, we, any, old themes · **What happens:** be, judge, exist, render, mean, complete · **To what, where:** nothing, existing collections, national portrait, stories, materials · **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 (stories, we, any, old themes), 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:pg22373:11:19
# text = But the stories of this class are often nothing more than comparatively modern adaptations of old and foreign themes; nor are they sufficiently numerous, so far as we can judge from existing collections, to render by any means complete the national portrait for which they are expected to supply the materials.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	class	class	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	often	often	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	0	root	_	_
10	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	amod	_	_
11	than	than	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	comparatively	comparatively	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	modern	modern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	adaptations	adaptation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	foreign	foreign	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
19	themes	theme	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	25	cc	_	_
22	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	sufficiently	sufficiently	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	numerous	numerous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
29	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	judge	judge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	parataxis	_	_
33	from	from	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	existing	exist	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	35	amod	_	_
35	collections	collection	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	render	render	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	conj	_	_
39	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
40	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	41	nsubj	_	_
41	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	ccomp	_	_
42	complete	complete	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	ccomp	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
44	national	national	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	portrait	portrait	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
46	for	for	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	50	obl	_	_
48	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj:pass	_	_
49	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	50	aux:pass	_	_
50	expected	expect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	45	acl:relcl	_	_
51	to	to	PART	TO	_	52	mark	_	_
52	supply	supply	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	xcomp	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	materials	material	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the stories of this class | nothing |  |  |  | often *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | stories *= story* |  |  |  |  | numerous, sufficiently *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **judge** | can | we |  |  | existing collections |  | far *property* | vn estimate-34.2-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **exist** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **render** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **mean** | present | any |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **complete** | infinitive |  | the national portrait |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent portrait=Eventuality |
| 8 | **expect** | present · passive |  | stories *= story* |  |  |  | for the national portrait | tree rules |
| 9 | **supply** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | stories *= story* *not said here* | the materials |  |  |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent material=Recipient |
| 10 | **adapt** |  | old themes |  |  |  |  |  | nom adaptation «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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