---
title: Twice his magic horse tries in vain to surmount it, but the third ti… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Twice his magic horse tries in vain to surmount it, but the third time it succeeds, and the youth carries off the princess, who ultimately becomes his wife. Who acts: cave, youth, princess, brother. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Magic and Witchcraft
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Magic and Witchcraft., part 4, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Twice his magic horse tries in vain to surmount it, but the third time it succeeds, and the youth carries off the princess, who ultimately becomes his wife.

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**Who acts:** cave, youth, princess, brother · **What happens:** surmount, succeed, carry off, become, try · **To what, where:** cave, princess, wife

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Magic and Witchcraft., 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 (cave, youth, princess, brother), 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:pg22373:45:107
# text = Twice his magic horse tries in vain to surmount it, but the third time it succeeds, and the youth carries off the princess, who ultimately becomes his wife.
1	Twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	7	advmod	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
3	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	tries	try	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	surmount	surmount	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	csubj	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	15	amod	_	_
15	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl:unmarked	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	succeeds	succeed	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	carries	carry	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
23	off	off	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
28	ultimately	ultimately	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	becomes	become	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **surmount** | to-infinitive |  | cave |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **succeed** | present | cave |  |  |  | time |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **carry off** | present | the youth | the princess |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent princess=Theme |
| 4 | **become** | present | the princess | brother's wife |  |  |  | ultimately *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **try** |  | brother |  |  |  |  |  | nom try «act transitive»: 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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