---
title: Scarcely had he got half-way across when he tripped over a stone, tu… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Scarcely had he got half-way across when he tripped over a stone, tumbled into the water--and there was an end of him. Who acts: Scarcely, way, end. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 4, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 4, sentence 92

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Scarcely had he got half-way across when he tripped over a stone, tumbled into the water--and there was an end of him.

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**Who acts:** Scarcely, way, end · **What happens:** have, get, trip, tumble, be · **To what, where:** way, stone, water

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scarcely, way, end), 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:pg22373:14:92
# text = Scarcely had he got half-way across when he tripped over a stone, tumbled into the water--and there was an end of him.
1	Scarcely	Scarcely	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	across	across	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	tripped	trip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
12	over	over	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	tumbled	tumble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	23	expl	_	_
23	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
24	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Scarcely |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **get** | past | Scarcely | way |  |  |  | across *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **trip** | past | way |  |  | a stone |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over stone=Trajectory |
| 4 | **tumble** | participle |  | a stone *not said here* |  | the water |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into water=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **be** | past | a end of way |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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