---
title: "What's the meaning of this?" thinks the old woman; "suppose I keep… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: "What's the meaning of this?" thinks the old woman; "suppose I keep awake to-night; may be I shall find out." Who acts: meaning. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 3, sentence 1

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"What's the meaning of this?" thinks the old woman; "suppose I keep awake to-night; may be I shall find out."

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**Who acts:** meaning · **What happens:** be, think, suppose, keep · **To what, where:** meaning, old woman · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (meaning), 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:pg22373:13:1
# text = "What's the meaning of this?" thinks the old woman; "suppose I keep awake to-night; may be I shall find out."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	thinks	think	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	suppose	suppose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	keep	keep	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
19	awake	awake	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
29	out	out	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the meaning |  |  |  | of this | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | present | the meaning | the old woman |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent woman=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 3 | **suppose** *in a quote* | infinitive | the meaning *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **keep** *in a quote* | present | the meaning *= meaning* |  |  |  |  | awake *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | shall | the meaning *= meaning* |  |  |  |  | find *property* | tree rules |

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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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