---
title: At length its occupant appears, and accounts for his delay by saying… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: At length its occupant appears, and accounts for his delay by saying he had been far away when the first knocks came, and so had not heard them. Who acts: occupant, delay, first knocks. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Ghost Stories., part 2, with its 
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Ghost Stories., part 2, sentence 183

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length its occupant appears, and accounts for his delay by saying he had been far away when the first knocks came, and so had not heard them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** occupant, delay, first knocks · **What happens:** appear, say, be, come, not hear · **To what, where:** accounts, length, knocks · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Ghost Stories., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (occupant, delay, first knocks), 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:pg22373:52:183
# text = At length its occupant appears, and accounts for his delay by saying he had been far away when the first knocks came, and so had not heard them.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	occupant	occupant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	appears	appear	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	accounts	account	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	delay	delay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	cop	_	_
17	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
18	away	away	ADV	RB	_	13	ccomp	_	_
19	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	23	mark	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	amod	_	_
22	knocks	knock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appear** | present | length's occupant | accounts |  | length |  | for occupant's delay | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location account=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | occupant's delay *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past · perfect | occupant |  |  |  |  | away, far *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **come** | past | the first knocks |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **hear** | past · perfect | length's occupant *not said here* | knocks *= knock* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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