---
title: A popular tradition asserts that the Devil may be killed if shot wit… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: A popular tradition asserts that the Devil may be killed if shot with an egg laid on Christmas Eve. See Afanasief, _P.V.S. Who acts: popular tradition. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 15, with its dependency tree and the
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/175/)

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 15, sentence 175

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A popular tradition asserts that the Devil may be killed if shot with an egg laid on Christmas Eve. See Afanasief, \_P.V.S.

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**Who acts:** popular tradition · **What happens:** assert, kill, lay · **To what, where:** Devil, egg

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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 (popular tradition), 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:pg22373:33:175
# text = A popular tradition asserts that the Devil may be killed if shot with an egg laid on Christmas Eve. See Afanasief, _P.V.S.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	popular	popular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	tradition	tradition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	asserts	assert	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Devil	Devil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	shot	shot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	Eve.	Eve.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	See	See	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl:agent	_	_
21	Afanasief	Afanasief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	P.V.S	P.V.S	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **assert** | present | a popular tradition |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **kill** | may · passive |  | the Devil |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer shot=Result |
| 3 | **lay** | participle |  | a egg *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=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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