---
title: But when the old man came, "scarcely able to crawl along on a pair o… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: But when the old man came, "scarcely able to crawl along on a pair of crutches," he said he knew nothing about it, but perhaps his father might remember something. Who acts: old man, man, father. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, pa
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when the old man came, "scarcely able to crawl along on a pair of crutches," he said he knew nothing about it, but perhaps his father might remember something.

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**Who acts:** old man, man, father · **What happens:** come, crawl, say, know, remember · **To what, where:** pair, nothing, 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 (old man, man, father), 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:pg22373:56:46
# text = But when the old man came, "scarcely able to crawl along on a pair of crutches," he said he knew nothing about it, but perhaps his father might remember something.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	ccomp	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	crawl	crawl	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	along	along	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	crutches	crutch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	ccomp	_	_
25	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	24	obj	_	_
26	about	about	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
30	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
33	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	remember	remember	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
35	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **crawl** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  | a pair of crutches |  | along *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on pair=Trajectory |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **know** | past | man | nothing |  |  |  | about pair | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 5 | **remember** | might | man's father | something |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent something=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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