---
title: "Can this be their elder brother?" thought he--however he asked him: — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: "Can this be their elder brother?" thought he--however he asked him: Who acts: this, elder brother, orphan. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 6, sentence 54

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"Can this be their elder brother?" thought he--however he asked him:

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**Who acts:** this, elder brother, orphan · **What happens:** be, think, ask · **To what, where:** elder brother, orphan, man · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this, elder brother, orphan), 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:pg22373:16:54
# text = "Can this be their elder brother?" thought he--however he asked him:
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	however	however	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	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* | can | this | boys's elder brother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | boys's elder brother | orphan |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot he=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | orphan |  | man |  |  | however *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

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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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