---
title: A comb does not at first sight appear to resemble a mountain, but it… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: A comb does not at first sight appear to resemble a mountain, but its indented outline may have struck the fancy of many primitive peoples as being a likeness to a serrated mountain range. Who acts: comb. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MY
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/43/)

<!-- 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/) / 43

# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 11, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A comb does not at first sight appear to resemble a mountain, but its indented outline may have struck the fancy of many primitive peoples as being a likeness to a serrated mountain range.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** comb · **What happens:** not do, appear, resemble, indent, strike, be · **To what, where:** sight, mountain, indented outline, many primitive peoples

<!-- .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 (comb), 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:pg22373:29:43
# text = A comb does not at first sight appear to resemble a mountain, but its indented outline may have struck the fancy of many primitive peoples as being a likeness to a serrated mountain range.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	comb	comb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	advmod	_	_
7	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
8	appear	appear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	resemble	resemble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	indented	indent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	outline	outline	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux	_	_
20	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	fancy	fancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	primitive	primitive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	peoples	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
27	as	as	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	cop	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	likeness	likeness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
33	serrated	serrate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	amod	_	_
34	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	range	range	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | present | a comb |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **appear** | present |  |  |  | sight |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **resemble** | to-infinitive |  | a mountain |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **indent** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **strike** | may · perfect · passive |  | comb's indented outline |  |  |  | to a serrated mountain range | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP ADJP»: subject=Patient fancy=Result |
| 6 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | as a likeness | tree rules |
| 7 | **serrate** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **fancy** |  |  | many primitive peoples |  |  |  |  | nom fancy «cognition transitive»: of=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 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/42/)
- next →: [sentence 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/44/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/)