---
title: Vasilissa was the prettiest girl[183] in all the village; but her st… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Vasilissa was the prettiest girl[183] in all the village; but her stepmother and stepsisters were jealous of her beauty, and tormented her with every possible sort of toil, in order that she might grow thin from over-work, and be tanned by the sun and the wind. Who acts: Vasilissa, stepmother, widow
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 12, sentence 19

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Vasilissa was the prettiest girl\[183\] in all the village; but her stepmother and stepsisters were jealous of her beauty, and tormented her with every possible sort of toil, in order that she might grow thin from over-work, and be tanned by the sun and the wind.

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**Who acts:** Vasilissa, stepmother, widow, sun · **What happens:** be, torment, grow, tan, sort · **To what, where:** prettiest girl, widow, order, over-work, toil

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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 (Vasilissa, stepmother, widow, sun), 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:pg22373:30:19
# text = Vasilissa was the prettiest girl[183] in all the village; but her stepmother and stepsisters were jealous of her beauty, and tormented her with every possible sort of toil, in order that she might grow thin from over-work, and be tanned by the sun and the wind.
1	Vasilissa	Vasilissa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	183	183	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	5	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	7	punct	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	12	det:predet	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	stepsisters	stepsister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	conj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	jealous	jealous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	tormented	torment	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	31	det	_	_
30	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	toil	toil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
37	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
38	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
39	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	acl	_	_
41	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	xcomp	_	_
42	from	from	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	over-work	over-work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
46	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	aux:pass	_	_
47	tanned	tan	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
48	by	by	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Vasilissa | the prettiest girl |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | widow's stepmother and stepsisters |  |  |  |  | of widow's beauty; jealous *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **torment** | past | widow's stepmother and stepsisters *not said here* | widow |  | order |  | with every possible sort of toil | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer |
| 4 | **grow** | might | widow | order *not said here* |  | over-work |  | thin *property* | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP.product PP.material»: agent=Agent order=Product from over-work=Material |
| 5 | **tan** | infinitive · passive | the sun and the wind |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **sort** |  |  | toil |  |  |  |  | nom sort «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.

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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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