---
title: But as for his elder brothers they did nothing but exercise their ho… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: But as for his elder brothers they did nothing but exercise their horses, and curl their hair, and dye their mustaches. Who acts: skazkas. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Magic and Witchcraft., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Magic and Witchcraft., part 4, sentence 39

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But as for his elder brothers they did nothing but exercise their horses, and curl their hair, and dye their mustaches.

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**Who acts:** skazkas · **What happens:** do, exercise, curl, dye · **To what, where:** nothing, horses, hair, mustaches

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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), 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:pg22373:45:39
# text = But as for his elder brothers they did nothing but exercise their horses, and curl their hair, and dye their mustaches.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	6	case	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	2	fixed	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	8	obj	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	exercise	exercise	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	curl	curl	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	dye	dye	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	mustaches	mustache	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | skazkas *= skazka* | nothing |  |  |  | as Vanya's elder brothers | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 2 | **exercise** | present | skazkas *= skazka* *not said here* | skazkas's horses |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Patient |
| 3 | **curl** | present |  | skazkas's hair |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Patient |
| 4 | **dye** | present |  | skazkas's mustaches |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mustache=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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