---
title: They all obeyed except this bird, which refused to fulfil its duty,… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: They all obeyed except this bird, which refused to fulfil its duty, saying that it had no need of seas, lakes or rivers, to slake its thirst. Who acts: birds, bird, earth. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1, with its dependenc
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They all obeyed except this bird, which refused to fulfil its duty, saying that it had no need of seas, lakes or rivers, to slake its thirst.

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**Who acts:** birds, bird, earth · **What happens:** obey, refuse, not fulfil, say, have, slake · **To what, where:** duty, need, thirst, seas · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (birds, bird, earth), 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:pg22373:56:80
# text = They all obeyed except this bird, which refused to fulfil its duty, saying that it had no need of seas, lakes or rivers, to slake its thirst.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
3	obeyed	obey	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	except	except	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	fulfil	fulfil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	duty	duty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	need	need	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	seas	sea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	lakes	lake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
25	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	slake	slake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
30	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	thirst	thirst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **obey** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | except this bird | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **refuse** | past | this bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **fulfil** | to-infinitive | this bird *not said here* | earth's duty |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | this bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **have** | past | earth | no need of seas and lakes or rivers |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent need=Patient |
| 6 | **slake** | to-infinitive | earth *not said here* | earth's thirst |  |  |  |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thirst=Patient |
| 7 | **need** |  |  | seas and lakes or rivers |  |  |  |  | nom need «state transitive»: of=patient |
| 8 | **thirst** |  | earth |  |  |  |  |  | nom thirst «state intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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