---
title: When the merchant mentioned the devil's name, the fiend immediately… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: When the merchant mentioned the devil's name, the fiend immediately appeared at the threshold, began seizing the gold and silver wares, and flinging in their place bits of pottery. Who acts: merchant, fiend, silver, devil. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lor
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 6, sentence 53

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When the merchant mentioned the devil's name, the fiend immediately appeared at the threshold, began seizing the gold and silver wares, and flinging in their place bits of pottery.

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**Who acts:** merchant, fiend, silver, devil · **What happens:** mention, appear, begin, seize, ware, fling · **To what, where:** name, threshold, gold, place bits

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (merchant, fiend, silver, devil), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg22373:61:53
# text = When the merchant mentioned the devil's name, the fiend immediately appeared at the threshold, began seizing the gold and silver wares, and flinging in their place bits of pottery.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	mentioned	mention	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	devil	Devil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	fiend	fiend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	threshold	threshold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
19	seizing	seize	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	xcomp	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	wares	ware	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	flinging	fling	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	conj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	bits	bit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	pottery	pottery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mention** *speech: other* | past | the merchant | the devil's name |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent name=Topic |
| 2 | **appear** | past | the fiend |  |  | the threshold |  | immediately *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at threshold=Location |
| 3 | **begin** | past | the fiend *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **seize** | gerund | the fiend *not said here* | the gold |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gold=Theme |
| 5 | **ware** | present | silver | the gold *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **fling** | gerund | the fiend *not said here* |  |  | merchants's place bits of pottery |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent in bit=Destination |
| 7 | **name** |  | the devil |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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