---
title: On Christmas Eve it is customary for the oldest man in each family t… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: On Christmas Eve it is customary for the oldest man in each family to take a spoonful of kissel, a sort of pudding, and then, having put his head through the window, to cry: Who acts: it. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 6, sentence 31

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On Christmas Eve it is customary for the oldest man in each family to take a spoonful of kissel, a sort of pudding, and then, having put his head through the window, to cry:

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**Who acts:** it · **What happens:** be, take, put, cry, sort · **To what, where:** customary, Christmas, spoonful, head, window, pudding

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it), 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:pg22373:40:31
# text = On Christmas Eve it is customary for the oldest man in each family to take a spoonful of kissel, a sort of pudding, and then, having put his head through the window, to cry:
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
3	Eve	Eve	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	customary	customary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	amod	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	csubj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	spoonful	spoonful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	kissel	kissel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	pudding	pudding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	aux	_	_
30	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	parataxis	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	through	through	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	cry	cry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | it | customary |  | Christmas |  | for the oldest man in each family | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | to-infinitive |  | a spoonful of kissel |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spoonful=Theme |
| 3 | **put** | gerund · perfect |  | man's head |  | the window | then |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent head=Theme through window=Destination |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **sort** |  |  | pudding |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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