---
title: On the banks of this brook, a long time ago, a certain man set up a… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: On the banks of this brook, a long time ago, a certain man set up a mill, and the fish came and implored the stream to grant them its aid, saying, "We used to have room enough and be at our ease, but now an evil man is taking away the water from us." Who acts: certain man, fish, We, evil man. A sent
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4, sentence 146

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On the banks of this brook, a long time ago, a certain man set up a mill, and the fish came and implored the stream to grant them its aid, saying, "We used to have room enough and be at our ease, but now an evil man is taking away the water from us."

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**Who acts:** certain man, fish, We, evil man · **What happens:** set up, come, implore, grant, say, use · **To what, where:** mill, banks, stream, room, ease, water · **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 (certain man, fish, We, evil man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg22373:38:146
# text = On the banks of this brook, a long time ago, a certain man set up a mill, and the fish came and implored the stream to grant them its aid, saying, "We used to have room enough and be at our ease, but now an evil man is taking away the water from us."
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	brook	brook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
11	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
16	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	implored	implore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	grant	grant	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	aid	aid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	ccomp	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
41	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	xcomp	_	_
42	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
43	enough	enough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
45	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	48	cop	_	_
46	at	at	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	ease	ease	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
50	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
51	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	56	advmod	_	_
52	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
53	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	amod	_	_
54	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	nsubj	_	_
55	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	56	aux	_	_
56	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	39	advcl	_	_
57	away	away	ADV	RB	_	56	advmod	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	obj	_	_
60	from	from	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
61	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	56	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set up** | participle | a certain man *not said here* | a mill |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient mill=Result |
| 2 | **come** | past | the fish |  |  | the banks of this brook and a certain man |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on bank=Location |
| 3 | **implore** | past | the fish *not said here* | the stream |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stream=Recipient |
| 4 | **grant** | to-infinitive | the fish *not said here* | banks *= bank* |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent they=Goal aid=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **use** *in a quote* | past | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **have** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | We *not said here* | room |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent room=Patient |
| 8 | **is** *in a quote* | infinitive | We *not said here* |  |  | our ease |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **take away** *in a quote* | present · progressive | a evil man | the water |  |  | now | from us; away *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent water=Theme from we=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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