---
title: There was once a certain woman who did not pay due reverence to Moth… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a certain woman who did not pay due reverence to Mother Friday, but set to work on a distaff-ful of flax, combing and whirling it. Who acts: certain woman, distaff ful. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3, 
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3, sentence 79

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There was once a certain woman who did not pay due reverence to Mother Friday, but set to work on a distaff-ful of flax, combing and whirling it.

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**Who acts:** certain woman, distaff ful · **What happens:** be, not pay, set, work, comb, whirl · **To what, where:** due reverence, reverence

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (certain woman, distaff ful), 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:pg22373:37:79
# text = There was once a certain woman who did not pay due reverence to Mother Friday, but set to work on a distaff-ful of flax, combing and whirling it.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
8	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	due	due	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	reverence	reverence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Mother	Mother	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	Friday	Friday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	distaff	distaff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	ful	ful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	combing	comb	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	whirling	whirl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	conj	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a certain woman |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **pay** | past · do-support | a certain woman | due reverence |  |  |  | to Mother | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reverence=Asset |
| 3 | **set** | infinitive | a certain woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **work** | to-infinitive | a certain woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on a distaff ful of flax | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on ful=Theme |
| 5 | **comb** | gerund | a distaff ful of flax *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_instr-10.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **whirl** | gerund | a distaff ful of flax *not said here* | reverence |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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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