---
title: It wasn't a question with him of girls (with dowries); more than all… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: It wasn't a question with him of girls (with dowries); more than all others, a certain widow took his fancy. Who acts: merchant, certain widow, VASILISSA. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 12, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 12, sentence 15

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It wasn't a question with him of girls (with dowries); more than all others, a certain widow took his fancy.

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**Who acts:** merchant, certain widow, VASILISSA · **What happens:** not be, be, take, fancy · **To what, where:** question, fancy

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant, certain widow, VASILISSA), 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:pg22373:30:15
# text = It wasn't a question with him of girls (with dowries); more than all others, a certain widow took his fancy.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
10	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	dowries	dowry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
15	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	conj	_	_
16	than	than	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	det	_	_
18	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	widow	widow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	fancy	fancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | merchant | a question |  |  |  | with VASILISSA; of girls | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | than all others | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past | a certain widow | VASILISSA's fancy |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fancy=Theme |
| 4 | **fancy** |  | VASILISSA |  |  |  |  |  | nom fancy «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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