---
title: It a certain god sold to them, in the shape of a sow which devoured… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: It a certain god sold to them, in the shape of a sow which devoured a peck of needles a day. Who acts: sow. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1, sentence 103

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It a certain god sold to them, in the shape of a sow which devoured a peck of needles a day.

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**Who acts:** sow · **What happens:** sell, devour · **To what, where:** certain god, god, peck

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sow), 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:pg22373:35:103
# text = It a certain god sold to them, in the shape of a sow which devoured a peck of needles a day.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	god	god	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	sold	sell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	sow	sow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	devoured	devour	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	peck	peck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	needles	needle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sell** | participle |  | a certain god and the shape of a sow *not said here* | god |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |
| 2 | **devour** | past | a sow | a peck of needles  a day |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent peck=Patient |

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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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