---
title: The soldier wanted to marry one of three princesses, but the elder o… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: The soldier wanted to marry one of three princesses, but the elder one and the second one told their father that they'd sooner marry the devil than the soldier. Who acts: soldier, elder one. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 5,
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 5, sentence 95

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The soldier wanted to marry one of three princesses, but the elder one and the second one told their father that they'd sooner marry the devil than the soldier.

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**Who acts:** soldier, elder one · **What happens:** want, marry, tell · **To what, where:** one, father, devil · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (soldier, elder one), 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:pg22373:60:95
# text = The soldier wanted to marry one of three princesses, but the elder one and the second one told their father that they'd sooner marry the devil than the soldier.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	18	amod	_	_
18	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
19	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	iobj	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	'd	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
25	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	26	advmod	_	_
26	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	devil	devil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	than	than	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | the soldier |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **marry** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the soldier *not said here* | one of three princesses |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the elder one and the second one |  | princesses's father |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent father=Recipient |
| 4 | **marry** | infinitive | the elder one and the second one *not said here* | the devil |  |  |  | than the soldier; soon *property* | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent devil=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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