---
title: The former youths had been handsome, but this one was handsomer still. — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: The former youths had been handsome, but this one was handsomer still. Who acts: former youths, one. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4, 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 II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4, sentence 26

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The former youths had been handsome, but this one was handsomer still.

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**Who acts:** former youths, one · **What happens:** be

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (former youths, one), 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:pg22373:22:26
# text = The former youths had been handsome, but this one was handsomer still.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	youths	youth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
6	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	handsomer	handsome	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	conj	_	_
13	still	still	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | the former youths |  |  |  |  | handsome *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | this one |  |  |  | still | handsome *property* | tree rules |

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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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