---
title: Pretending to be merely getting a light, the Princess contrives to s… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Pretending to be merely getting a light, the Princess contrives to splash the seething liquid over the witch, who immediately falls dead. Who acts: Princess, witch. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Magic and Witchcraft., part 7, with its dependency tre
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Magic and Witchcraft., part 7, sentence 124

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Pretending to be merely getting a light, the Princess contrives to splash the seething liquid over the witch, who immediately falls dead.

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**Who acts:** Princess, witch · **What happens:** pretend, get, contrive, splash, fall · **To what, where:** light, seething liquid

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Magic and Witchcraft., part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princess, witch), 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:pg22373:48:124
# text = Pretending to be merely getting a light, the Princess contrives to splash the seething liquid over the witch, who immediately falls dead.
1	Pretending	pretend	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	csubj	_	_
2	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux	_	_
4	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	1	ccomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	contrives	contrive	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	splash	splash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	seething	seething	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	liquid	liquid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	over	over	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	falls	fall	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pretend** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **get** | to-infinitive · progressive |  | a light |  |  |  | merely *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer light=Stimulus |
| 3 | **contrive** | present | the Princess |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **splash** | to-infinitive | the Princess *not said here* | the seething liquid |  |  |  | over the witch | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent liquid=Theme over witch=Destination |
| 5 | **fall** | present | the witch |  |  |  |  | dead, immediately *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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