---
title: Its opening words are, "There once lived an old man and an old woman… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Its opening words are, "There once lived an old man and an old woman, and they had a little daughter. Who acts: opening words, words, part. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Ghost Stories., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Ghost Stories., part 1, sentence 74

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Its opening words are, "There once lived an old man and an old woman, and they had a little daughter.

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**Who acts:** opening words, words, part · **What happens:** live, have, word · **To what, where:** old man, little daughter

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Ghost Stories., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (opening words, words, part), 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:pg22373:51:74
# text = Its opening words are, "There once lived an old man and an old woman, and they had a little daughter.
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	opening	opening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
8	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	_
9	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** *in a quote* | past | part's opening words | a old man and a old woman |  | there |  | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | past | words *= word* | a little daughter |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Patient |
| 3 | **word** |  | part |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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