---
title: When the Lord was about to fashion the face of the earth, he ordered… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: When the Lord was about to fashion the face of the earth, he ordered the Devil to dive into the watery depths and bring thence a handful of the soil he found at the bottom. Who acts: Lord. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1, w
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/61/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collecti…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/) / [Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/) / 61

# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the Lord was about to fashion the face of the earth, he ordered the Devil to dive into the watery depths and bring thence a handful of the soil he found at the bottom.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Lord · **What happens:** be, fashion, order, dive, bring, find · **To what, where:** face, Devil, watery depths, handful, soil, bottom

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Lord), 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:pg22373:56:61
# text = When the Lord was about to fashion the face of the earth, he ordered the Devil to dive into the watery depths and bring thence a handful of the soil he found at the bottom.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	fashion	fashion	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Devil	Devil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	dive	dive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
20	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	watery	watery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	depths	depth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
26	thence	thence	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	handful	handful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	soil	soil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Lord |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fashion** | to-infinitive | the Lord *not said here* | the face of the earth |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent face=Product |
| 3 | **order** | past | Lord |  | the Devil |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent devil=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **dive** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Lord *not said here* |  |  | the watery depths |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into depth=Location |
| 5 | **bring** | infinitive | Lord *not said here* | a handful of the soil |  |  |  | thence *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent handful=Theme |
| 6 | **find** | past | Lord | the soil *not said here* |  | the bottom |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent soil=Theme at bottom=Asset |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/60/)
- next →: [sentence 62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/62/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/)