---
title: Then the old man began to bow down before Kruchina and to beseech hi… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the old man began to bow down before Kruchina and to beseech him[239] to give back the bread, seeing that he and his had nothing to eat. Who acts: old man, man. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 2, with its dependenc
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 2, sentence 172

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Then the old man began to bow down before Kruchina and to beseech him\[239\] to give back the bread, seeing that he and his had nothing to eat.

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**Who acts:** old man, man · **What happens:** begin, bow down, beseech, give back, see, have · **To what, where:** Kruchina, man, bread, nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, man), 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:pg22373:36:172
# text = Then the old man began to bow down before Kruchina and to beseech him[239] to give back the bread, seeing that he and his had nothing to eat.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	bow	bow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	down	down	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	before	before	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Kruchina	Kruchina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	beseech	beseech	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	239	239	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	16	punct	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
20	back	back	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	conj	_	_
29	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
30	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the old man |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **bow down** | to-infinitive | the old man *not said here* |  |  | Kruchina |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before kruchina=Location |
| 3 | **beseech** | to-infinitive | the old man *not said here* | man |  |  |  | 239 *obl* | tree rules |
| 4 | **give back** | to-infinitive | the old man *not said here* | the bread |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bread=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | gerund | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **have** | past | man | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 7 | **eat** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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