---
title: Utterance is impossible to her, but "she lifts one hand above the wa… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Utterance is impossible to her, but "she lifts one hand above the water and by means of two fingers makes signs to show that it was cut." Who acts: Utterance, wife, signs. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 5, with its depen
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 5, sentence 18

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Utterance is impossible to her, but "she lifts one hand above the water and by means of two fingers makes signs to show that it was cut."

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**Who acts:** Utterance, wife, signs · **What happens:** be, lift, mean, make, show, cut · **To what, where:** wife, one hand, water, signs, Utterance · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Utterance, wife, signs), 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:pg22373:15:18
# text = Utterance is impossible to her, but "she lifts one hand above the water and by means of two fingers makes signs to show that it was cut."
1	Utterance	utterance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	lifts	lift	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	above	above	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
22	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
23	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Utterance |  | wife |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lift** *in a quote* | present | wife | one hand |  | the water |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hand=Theme above water=Destination |
| 3 | **mean** *in a quote* | present | Utterance *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | present |  | signs |  |  |  | of two fingers | tree rules |
| 5 | **show** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | signs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **cut** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | Utterance |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

<!-- .note -->
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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