---
title: But they, taking pattern by their mother, were always insulting Marf… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: But they, taking pattern by their mother, were always insulting Marfa, quarrelling with her, and making her cry: that was even a pleasure to them! Who acts: stepsisters, that, Marfa. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 5, w
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 5, sentence 42

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But they, taking pattern by their mother, were always insulting Marfa, quarrelling with her, and making her cry: that was even a pleasure to them!

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**Who acts:** stepsisters, that, Marfa · **What happens:** take, be, quarrell, make, cry · **To what, where:** pattern, insulting Marfa, cry, pleasure, stepsisters

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stepsisters, that, Marfa), 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:pg22373:39:42
# text = But they, taking pattern by their mother, were always insulting Marfa, quarrelling with her, and making her cry: that was even a pleasure to them!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	pattern	pattern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
12	insulting	insulting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	Marfa	Marfa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	quarrelling	quarrell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	even	even	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | gerund | stepsisters *= stepsister* | pattern |  |  |  | by stepsisters's mother | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pattern=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | insulting Marfa |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **quarrell** | gerund | stepsisters *= stepsister* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with Marfa | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | gerund | stepsisters *= stepsister* *not said here* | Marfa's cry |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset cry=Product |
| 5 | **is a** | past | that | a pleasure | stepsisters *= stepsister* |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **cry** |  | Marfa |  |  |  |  |  | nom cry «communication intransitive»: poss=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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