---
title: His parents did all they could to trace him, but their attempts were… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: His parents did all they could to trace him, but their attempts were in vain. Who acts: parents, attempts. 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 23

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His parents did all they could to trace him, but their attempts were in vain.

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**Who acts:** parents, attempts · **What happens:** do, trace, be, attempt · **To what, where:** all, couple

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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 (parents, attempts), 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:pg22373:60:23
# text = His parents did all they could to trace him, but their attempts were in vain.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	obj	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	nmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	trace	trace	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	attempts	attempt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | couple's parents | all |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent all=Eventuality |
| 2 | **trace** | to-infinitive | couple's parents *not said here* | couple |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | parents's attempts |  |  |  |  | vain *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **attempt** |  | parents *= parent* |  |  |  |  |  | nom attempt «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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