---
title: "I had an only son, but his mother cursed him in a passion, crying,… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: "I had an only son, but his mother cursed him in a passion, crying, 'The devil take thee!' Who acts: merchant, mother, devil. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 5, sentence 14

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"I had an only son, but his mother cursed him in a passion, crying, 'The devil take thee!'

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**Who acts:** merchant, mother, devil · **What happens:** have, curse, cry, take · **To what, where:** only son, youth, passion, thee

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant, mother, devil), 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:pg22373:60:14
# text = "I had an only son, but his mother cursed him in a passion, crying, 'The devil take thee!'
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	cursed	curse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	passion	passion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	devil	devil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	parataxis	_	_
23	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | past | the merchant *= merchant* | a only son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 2 | **curse** *in a quote* | past | youth's mother | youth |  | a passion |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* *in a quote* | gerund | youth's mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **take** *in a quote* | infinitive | the devil | thee |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thou=Theme |

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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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