---
title: "If thou dost desire to become superior to thy brother," said his fa… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: "If thou dost desire to become superior to thy brother," said his father, "speed swiftly by hidden ways, through dark untrodden forests, and if thou canst outstrip thy brother, he will have to be thy servant!" Who acts: thou, father, Dnieper. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection o
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4, sentence 107

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"If thou dost desire to become superior to thy brother," said his father, "speed swiftly by hidden ways, through dark untrodden forests, and if thou canst outstrip thy brother, he will have to be thy servant!"

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**Who acts:** thou, father, Dnieper · **What happens:** do, become, say, outstrip, have, be · **To what, where:** desire, brother, servant · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thou, father, Dnieper), 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:pg22373:38:107
# text = "If thou dost desire to become superior to thy brother," said his father, "speed swiftly by hidden ways, through dark untrodden forests, and if thou canst outstrip thy brother, he will have to be thy servant!"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
4	dost	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
5	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
8	superior	superior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	speed	speed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
20	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	hidden	hidden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	through	through	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
27	untrodden	untrodden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
31	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	34	nsubj	_	_
33	canst	can	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	outstrip	outstrip	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	advcl	_	_
35	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
38	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
39	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
41	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
42	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	cop	_	_
43	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	40	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | thou | desire |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent desire=Eventuality |
| 2 | **become** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | thou *not said here* | desire *not said here* |  |  |  | superior *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | Dnieper's father and speed |  |  |  |  | by hidden ways and dark untrodden forests; swiftly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **outstrip** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | can | thou | thy brother |  |  |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot brother=Theme |
| 5 | **have** *in a quote* | future | Dnieper |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Dnieper *not said here* | thy servant |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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