---
title: [486] A certain peasant, it relates, was so poor that, in order to s… — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · tree and pragmatics
description: [486] A certain peasant, it relates, was so poor that, in order to save himself from starvation, he took to sorcery. Who acts: teller, 486, peasant. A sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/62/16/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collecti…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/) / [Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/62/) / 16

# Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 7, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
\[486\] A certain peasant, it relates, was so poor that, in order to save himself from starvation, he took to sorcery.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** teller, 486, peasant · **What happens:** relate, be, save, take · **To what, where:** peasant, starvation

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore», Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (teller, 486, peasant), 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:pg22373:62:16
# text = [486] A certain peasant, it relates, was so poor that, in order to save himself from starvation, he took to sorcery.
1	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	486	486	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	2	punct	_	_
4	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	relates	relate	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	19	mark	_	_
17	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	fixed	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
20	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	starvation	starvation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	sorcery	sorcery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **relate** | present | teller |  |  |  |  |  | vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | 486  a certain peasant |  |  |  |  | poor *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **save** | to-infinitive | 486  a certain peasant *not said here* | peasant |  | starvation |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent himself=Theme from starvation=Source |
| 4 | **take** | past | peasant |  |  |  |  | to sorcery *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to sorcery=Result |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/62/15/)
- next →: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/62/17/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/62/)