---
title: Now as he went along the street, it happened that some small boys ha… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Now as he went along the street, it happened that some small boys had got hold of a kitten and were tormenting it. Who acts: he, it, small boys. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 6, sentence 1

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Now as he went along the street, it happened that some small boys had got hold of a kitten and were tormenting it.

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**Who acts:** he, it, small boys · **What happens:** go, happen, get, torment, hold · **To what, where:** street, hold, kitten

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (he, it, small boys), 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:pg22373:16:1
# text = Now as he went along the street, it happened that some small boys had got hold of a kitten and were tormenting it.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	along	along	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
13	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	parataxis	_	_
17	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	kitten	kitten	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	tormenting	torment	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | he |  |  | the street | now |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme along street=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **get** | past · perfect | some small boys | hold of a kitten |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hold=Stimulus |
| 4 | **torment** | past · progressive | some small boys *not said here* | hold |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer |
| 5 | **hold** |  |  | a kitten |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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