---
title: And the heifer said to her, "Tell me, dear little maiden, wherefore… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And the heifer said to her, "Tell me, dear little maiden, wherefore dost thou weep?"--"Alas! why should I not weep? Who acts: heifer. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Golden Slipper, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Golden Slipper, sentence 12

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And the heifer said to her, "Tell me, dear little maiden, wherefore dost thou weep?"--"Alas! why should I not weep?

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**Who acts:** heifer · **What happens:** say, tell, do, weep, not weep · **To what, where:** dog, heifer, thou · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Golden Slipper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heifer), 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:pg29672:15:12
# text = And the heifer said to her, "Tell me, dear little maiden, wherefore dost thou weep?"--"Alas! why should I not weep?
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	heifer	heifer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
12	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
17	dost	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
18	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	17	obj	_	_
19	weep	weep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
26	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
27	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	weep	weep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the heifer |  | dog |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | the heifer *not said here* |  | the heifer *= heifer* |  |  | dear *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | present |  | thou |  |  |  | wherefore *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **weep** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **weep** *in a quote* | should | the heifer *= heifer* |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: 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:** «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», Project Gutenberg book 29672 (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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