---
title: They couldn't strike a light themselves anyhow, and whenever they br… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: They couldn't strike a light themselves anyhow, and whenever they brought one in from a neighbor's, it went out as soon as it came into the room. Who acts: stepsisters, light. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 13, with its
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 13, sentence 17

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They couldn't strike a light themselves anyhow, and whenever they brought one in from a neighbor's, it went out as soon as it came into the room.

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**Who acts:** stepsisters, light · **What happens:** not strike, bring, go out, come · **To what, where:** light, one, neighbor, room

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stepsisters, light), 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:pg22373:31:17
# text = They couldn't strike a light themselves anyhow, and whenever they brought one in from a neighbor's, it went out as soon as it came into the room.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obl	_	_
8	anyhow	anyhow	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	13	advmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	neighbor	neighbor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	's	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
23	out	out	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	as	as	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
29	into	into	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **strike** | could | stepsisters *= stepsister* | a light |  |  |  | stepsisters *= stepsister* *obl*; anyhow *property* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Patient |
| 2 | **bring** | past | stepsisters *= stepsister* | one |  | a neighbor |  | whenever *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 3 | **go out** | past | light |  |  |  |  | out, soon *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **come** | past | light |  |  | the room |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into room=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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