---
title: Then they bethought them of "a certain man from among the old people… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they bethought them of "a certain man from among the old people, who might be able to tell them something about it." Who acts: stories, old people. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1, sentence 45

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Then they bethought them of "a certain man from among the old people, who might be able to tell them something about it."

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**Who acts:** stories, old people · **What happens:** bethink, be, tell · **To what, where:** followers, something · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, 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 (stories, old people), 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:pg22373:56:45
# text = Then they bethought them of "a certain man from among the old people, who might be able to tell them something about it."
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	bethought	bethink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	among	among	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
17	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
19	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	_
23	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	21	obj	_	_
24	about	about	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bethink** | past | stories *= story* | followers *= follower* |  |  | then | of a certain man from the old people | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | might | the old people |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the old people *not said here* | something | followers *= follower* |  |  | about Marvelling | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient something=Topic |

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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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