---
title: "We've been travelling all this time, uncle, and now we're approachi… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: "We've been travelling all this time, uncle, and now we're approaching the country of Princess Anna the Fair; and yet we don't know what riddle to propound." Who acts: We. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Magic and Witchcraft., part 2, with its depende
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Magic and Witchcraft., part 2, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"We've been travelling all this time, uncle, and now we're approaching the country of Princess Anna the Fair; and yet we don't know what riddle to propound."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** We · **What happens:** travel, approach, not know, riddle, propound · **To what, where:** country · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Magic and Witchcraft., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We), 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:pg22373:43:40
# text = "We've been travelling all this time, uncle, and now we're approaching the country of Princess Anna the Fair; and yet we don't know what riddle to propound."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	've	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	aux	_	_
5	travelling	travel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	uncle	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
14	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	're	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Anna	Anna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Fair	Fair	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
26	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
27	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
31	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	32	nsubj	_	_
32	riddle	riddle	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	ccomp	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	propound	propound	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **travel** *in a quote* | present · perfect · progressive | We |  |  |  | time |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **approach** *in a quote* | present · progressive | we | the country of Princess Anna |  |  | now |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent country=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | present · do-support | we |  |  |  | yet |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **riddle** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **propound** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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