---
title: [208] "Some storytellers," says Afanasief, "substitute the word snak… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: [208] "Some storytellers," says Afanasief, "substitute the word snake (_zmei_) in the Skazka for that of witch (_vyed'ma_)." Who acts: Afanasief. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/34/185/)

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 16, sentence 185

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\[208\] "Some storytellers," says Afanasief, "substitute the word snake (\_zmei\_) in the Skazka for that of witch (\_vyed'ma\_)."

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**Who acts:** Afanasief · **What happens:** say, substitute · **To what, where:** word snake, Skazka · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Afanasief), 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:pg22373:34:185
# text = [208] "Some storytellers," says Afanasief, "substitute the word snake (_zmei_) in the Skazka for that of witch (_vyed'ma_)."
1	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	208	208	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	2	punct	_	_
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	storytellers	storyteller	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
9	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	Afanasief	Afanasief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	substitute	substitute	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	zmei	zmei	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	16	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	19	punct	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Skazka	Skazka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
29	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	vyed'ma	vyed'ma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Afanasief |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **substitute** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the word snake |  | the Skazka |  | for that witch | vn substitute-13.6.2 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Theme snake=Location |

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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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