--- title: There was the merchant alive and well, holding the cat in his arms,… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics description: There was the merchant alive and well, holding the cat in his arms, and stroking its fur; the cat was purring away, singing its song, and on the floor lay a perfect heap of dead rats and mice! Who acts: merchant, cat. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», C --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/16/18/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collecti…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/) / [Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/16/) / 18 # Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 6, sentence 18 There was the merchant alive and well, holding the cat in his arms, and stroking its fur; the cat was purring away, singing its song, and on the floor lay a perfect heap of dead rats and mice! **Who acts:** merchant, cat · **What happens:** be, hold, stroke, purr away, sing, lie · **To what, where:** cat, arms, fur, song, perfect heap, floor 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 (merchant, cat), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg22373:16:18 # text = There was the merchant alive and well, holding the cat in his arms, and stroking its fur; the cat was purring away, singing its song, and on the floor lay a perfect heap of dead rats and mice! 1 There there PRON EX PronType=Dem 2 expl _ _ 2 was be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 4 merchant merchant NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _ 5 alive alive ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 amod _ _ 6 and and CCONJ CC _ 7 cc _ _ 7 well well ADV RB Degree=Pos 5 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 9 holding hold VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 2 advcl _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 cat cat NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obj _ _ 12 in in ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 13 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 14 nmod:poss _ _ 14 arms arm NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 17 cc _ _ 17 stroking stroke VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 2 advcl _ _ 18 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 19 nmod:poss _ _ 19 fur fur NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 20 ; ; PUNCT : _ 24 punct _ _ 21 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 22 cat cat NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 nsubj _ _ 23 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 24 aux _ _ 24 purring purr VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 17 conj _ _ 25 away away ADV RB _ 24 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 27 singing sing VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 24 conj _ _ 28 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 29 nmod:poss _ _ 29 song song NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 31 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ _ 32 on on ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 floor floor NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obl _ _ 35 lay lie VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 24 conj _ _ 36 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 37 perfect perfect ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ _ 38 heap heap NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obj _ _ 39 of of ADP IN _ 41 case _ _ 40 dead dead ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 41 amod _ _ 41 rats rat NOUN NNS Number=Plur 38 nmod _ _ 42 and and CCONJ CC _ 43 cc _ _ 43 mice mouse NOUN NNS Number=Plur 41 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 44 ! ! PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **be** | past | the merchant | | | there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **hold** | gerund | the merchant *not said here* | the cat | | merchant's arms | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent cat=Theme in arm=Location | | 3 | **stroke** | gerund | the merchant *not said here* | cat's fur | | | | | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fur=Experiencer | | 4 | **purr away** | past · progressive | the cat | | | | | away *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the cat *not said here* | cat's song | | | | | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme | | 6 | **lie** | past | the cat *not said here* | a perfect heap of dead rats and mice | | the floor | | | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location heap=Theme | | 7 | **sing** | | cat | | | | | | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/16/17/) - next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/16/19/) - ↑ back to [Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/16/)