---
title: Before taking the sacrament at Easter, the servants in a Russian hou… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Before taking the sacrament at Easter, the servants in a Russian household ask their employers to forgive them for any faults of which they may have been guilty. " Who acts: servants, employers. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 15, sentence 161

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Before taking the sacrament at Easter, the servants in a Russian household ask their employers to forgive them for any faults of which they may have been guilty. "

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**Who acts:** servants, employers · **What happens:** take, ask, forgive, be · **To what, where:** sacrament, Easter, employers

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servants, employers), 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:pg22373:33:161
# text = Before taking the sacrament at Easter, the servants in a Russian household ask their employers to forgive them for any faults of which they may have been guilty. "
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	sacrament	sacrament	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Easter	Easter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	Russian	Russian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	household	household	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
14	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	employers	employer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	forgive	forgive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	faults	fault	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obl	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux	_	_
28	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	cop	_	_
29	guilty	guilty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | gerund | the servants in a Russian household *not said here* | the sacrament |  | Easter |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent sacrament=Theme at easter=Asset |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | the servants in a Russian household | servants's employers |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent employer=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **forgive** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | servants's employers *not said here* | employers *= employer* |  |  |  | for any faults | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent they=Theme for fault=Attribute |
| 4 | **is** | may · perfect | servants *= servant* |  |  |  |  | of any faults; guilty *property* | tree rules |

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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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