---
title: While he is tugging away at them he catches sight of Vanka, and imme… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: While he is tugging away at them he catches sight of Vanka, and immediately asks him to help him home with his load. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 6, sentence 97

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While he is tugging away at them he catches sight of Vanka, and immediately asks him to help him home with his load.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** tug away, catch, ask, help, sight · **To what, where:** sight, boy, Vanka

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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 (boy), 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:pg22373:61:97
# text = While he is tugging away at them he catches sight of Vanka, and immediately asks him to help him home with his load.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	tugging	tug	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	catches	catch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Vanka	Vanka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	asks	ask	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	home	home	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	load	load	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tug away** | present · progressive | boy |  |  |  |  | at turnips *= turnip*; away *property* | vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent at they=Theme |
| 2 | **catch** | present | boy | sight of Vanka |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | boy *not said here* |  | boy |  |  | immediately *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **help** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  | boy |  |  | with boy's load; home *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary with load=Theme |
| 5 | **sight** |  |  | Vanka |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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