---
title: The Baba Yaga began gnawing away at it, but however hard she worked,… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: The Baba Yaga began gnawing away at it, but however hard she worked, she couldn't gnaw her way through it, so she had to go back again. Who acts: Baba Yaga, girl. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 11, with its dependency t
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/16/)

<!-- 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 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/) / 16

# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 11, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Baba Yaga began gnawing away at it, but however hard she worked, she couldn't gnaw her way through it, so she had to go back again.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Baba Yaga, girl · **What happens:** begin, gnaw away, work, not gnaw, have, go back · **To what, where:** way, Yaga

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Baba Yaga, girl), 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:pg22373:29:16
# text = The Baba Yaga began gnawing away at it, but however hard she worked, she couldn't gnaw her way through it, so she had to go back again.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Baba	Baba	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Yaga	Yaga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	gnawing	gnaw	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	away	away	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	however	however	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	worked	work	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	gnaw	gnaw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	through	through	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	back	back	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	again	again	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the Baba Yaga |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **gnaw away** | gerund | the Baba Yaga *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at Yaga; away *property* | vn chew-39.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at it=Patient |
| 3 | **work** | past | girl |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **gnaw** | could | girl | girl's way |  | Yaga |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |
| 5 | **have** | past | girl |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **go back** | to-infinitive | girl *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/15/)
- next →: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/17/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/)