---
title: When a drought was impending, he scattered the peasant's seed-corn o… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: When a drought was impending, he scattered the peasant's seed-corn over a swamp; when a wet season was at hand, he sowed the slopes of the hills. Who acts: drought, wet season. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 6, with its depe
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 6, sentence 133

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When a drought was impending, he scattered the peasant's seed-corn over a swamp; when a wet season was at hand, he sowed the slopes of the hills.

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**Who acts:** drought, wet season · **What happens:** impend, scatter, be, sow · **To what, where:** seed corn, swamp, hand, slopes

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This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (drought, wet season), 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:pg22373:61:133
# text = When a drought was impending, he scattered the peasant's seed-corn over a swamp; when a wet season was at hand, he sowed the slopes of the hills.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	drought	drought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	impending	impend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	's	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	seed	seed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
15	over	over	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	swamp	swamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	sowed	sow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	slopes	slope	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **impend** | past · progressive | a drought |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **scatter** | past | drought | the peasant's seed corn |  | a swamp |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent corn=Theme over swamp=Destination |
| 3 | **is** | past | a wet season |  |  | hand |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sow** | past | drought | the slopes of the hills |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent slope=Theme |

<!-- .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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