---
title: In the original form of the tale the supernatural agent was probably… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: In the original form of the tale the supernatural agent was probably a demigod, whom a vague Christian influence has in one instance degraded into the Devil, in another, canonized as St. Nicholas. Who acts: supernatural agent, vague Christian influence. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice C
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 4, sentence 114

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In the original form of the tale the supernatural agent was probably a demigod, whom a vague Christian influence has in one instance degraded into the Devil, in another, canonized as St. Nicholas.

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**Who acts:** supernatural agent, vague Christian influence · **What happens:** be, have, degrade, canonize, form · **To what, where:** demigod, original form, one instance, tale

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (supernatural agent, vague Christian influence), 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:pg22373:59:114
# text = In the original form of the tale the supernatural agent was probably a demigod, whom a vague Christian influence has in one instance degraded into the Devil, in another, canonized as St. Nicholas.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	original	original	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	supernatural	supernatural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	agent	agent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	demigod	demigod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	obj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	vague	vague	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	Christian	Christian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	influence	influence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	instance	instance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	degraded	degrade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
26	into	into	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Devil	Devil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	canonized	canonize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	acl	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	St.	St.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod:desc	_	_
36	Nicholas	Nicholas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the supernatural agent | a demigod |  | the original form of the tale |  | probably *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | present | a vague Christian influence | a demigod |  | one instance |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **degrade** | participle |  | one instance *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **canonize** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | as Nicholas  St. | tree rules |
| 5 | **form** |  |  | the tale |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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