---
title: "There is no trace of them," they said, "no news: all we saw was an… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: "There is no trace of them," they said, "no news: all we saw was an old man beside a well, and a bowl floating on the water." Who acts: trace, pursuers, we, all. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 9, with its dependency tre
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 9, sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"There is no trace of them," they said, "no news: all we saw was an old man beside a well, and a bowl floating on the water."

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**Who acts:** trace, pursuers, we, all, bowl · **What happens:** be, say, see, float · **To what, where:** old man, well, water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (trace, pursuers, we, all), 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:pg22373:27:111
# text = "There is no trace of them," they said, "no news: all we saw was an old man beside a well, and a bowl floating on the water."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	trace	trace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
15	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	nsubj	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	_
24	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	bowl	bowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
31	floating	float	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	acl	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *in a quote* | present | no trace of pursuers |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | pursuers *= pursuer* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **see** *in a quote* | past | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | all | a old man and a bowl |  | a well |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **float** *in a quote* | gerund | a bowl *not said here* |  |  | the water |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on water=Trajectory |

<!-- .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.

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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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