---
title: The elder brothers cannot keep awake, and see nothing; but the young… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: The elder brothers cannot keep awake, and see nothing; but the youngest of the three, Prince Ivan, though he fails to capture the bird, secures one of its tail-feathers. Who acts: elder brothers, king. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Magic and Witchcr
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Magic and Witchcraft., part 7, sentence 145

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The elder brothers cannot keep awake, and see nothing; but the youngest of the three, Prince Ivan, though he fails to capture the bird, secures one of its tail-feathers.

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**Who acts:** elder brothers, king · **What happens:** not keep, see, fail, not capture, secure · **To what, where:** nothing, bird, one

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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 (elder brothers, king), 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:pg22373:48:145
# text = The elder brothers cannot keep awake, and see nothing; but the youngest of the three, Prince Ivan, though he fails to capture the bird, secures one of its tail-feathers.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	awake	awake	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
11	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	parataxis	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Ivan	Ivan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	fails	fail	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	capture	capture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	secures	secure	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
32	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
35	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **keep** | can | the elder brothers |  |  |  |  | awake *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **see** | infinitive | the elder brothers *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **fail** | present | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **capture** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | the bird |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
| 5 | **secure** | present | king *not said here* | one of garden's tail feathers |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition one=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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