---
title: But skazkas tell that, before our grandfathers had learnt anything,… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: But skazkas tell that, before our grandfathers had learnt anything, before their grandfathers[330] were born_--[331] Who acts: skazkas, grandfathers. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Magic and Witchcraft., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Magic and Witchcraft., part 4, sentence 23

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But skazkas tell that, before our grandfathers had learnt anything, before their grandfathers\[330\] were born\_--\[331\]

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**Who acts:** skazkas, grandfathers · **What happens:** tell, learn, bear · **To what, where:** that, anything, grandfathers · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (skazkas, grandfathers), 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:pg22373:45:23
# text = But skazkas tell that, before our grandfathers had learnt anything, before their grandfathers[330] were born_--[331]
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	skazkas	skazka	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	grandfathers	grandfather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	learnt	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
11	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	before	before	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	grandfathers	grandfather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	330	330	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	15	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	17	punct	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	331	331	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | skazkas | that |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent that=Recipient |
| 2 | **learn** | past · perfect | our grandfathers | anything |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Topic |
| 3 | **bear** | past · passive |  | grandfathers's grandfathers |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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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