---
title: And indeed it was no subject for jesting; he had been away from home… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: And indeed it was no subject for jesting; he had been away from home three whole years, and yet it seemed to him that he had not in all spent more than twenty-four hours with the devils. Who acts: silver, subject, youth, it. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-l
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 6, sentence 57

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And indeed it was no subject for jesting; he had been away from home three whole years, and yet it seemed to him that he had not in all spent more than twenty-four hours with the devils.

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**Who acts:** silver, subject, youth, it · **What happens:** be, jest, seem, have, spend · **To what, where:** subject, home, youth

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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 (silver, subject, youth, it), 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:pg22373:61:57
# text = And indeed it was no subject for jesting; he had been away from home three whole years, and yet it seemed to him that he had not in all spent more than twenty-four hours with the devils.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	subject	subject	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	jesting	jest	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	cop	_	_
13	away	away	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
16	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
17	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
31	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	38	det	_	_
32	spent	spend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	38	amod	_	_
33	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	37	advmod	_	_
34	than	than	ADP	IN	_	33	fixed	_	_
35	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	37	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	38	nummod	_	_
38	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
39	with	with	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	devils	devil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | silver | no subject |  |  |  | indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **jest** *speech: other* | gerund | no subject *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn chit\_chat-37.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past · perfect | youth |  |  | home | year | away *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **seem** | past | it |  | youth |  | yet |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **have** | past | youth |  |  |  | hour |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **spend** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=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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