---
title: But in most cases he is a serpent which in outward appearance seems… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: But in most cases he is a serpent which in outward appearance seems to differ from other ophidians only in being winged and polycephalous--the number of his heads generally varying from three to twelve. Who acts: outline, heads. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Fo
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/33/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/) / 33

# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But in most cases he is a serpent which in outward appearance seems to differ from other ophidians only in being winged and polycephalous--the number of his heads generally varying from three to twelve.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** outline, heads · **What happens:** be, seem, differ, wing, vary · **To what, where:** serpent, outward appearance, number

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (outline, heads), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg22373:19:33
# text = But in most cases he is a serpent which in outward appearance seems to differ from other ophidians only in being winged and polycephalous--the number of his heads generally varying from three to twelve.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	cases	case	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	outward	outward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
13	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	differ	differ	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	ophidians	ophidian	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	winged	wing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	advcl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	polycephalous	polycephalous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	_
31	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	varying	vary	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	acl	_	_
33	from	from	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	obl	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | outline | a serpent |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | present |  | a serpent |  | outward appearance |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **differ** | to-infinitive |  | the number of outline's heads |  |  |  | from other ophidians | vn differ-23.4 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme from ophidian=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **wing** | gerund · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V» |
| 5 | **vary** | gerund | outline's heads *not said here* |  |  |  |  | from three to twelve; generally *property* | vn differ-23.4 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme from three=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/32/)
- next →: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/34/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/)