---
title: The heifer began grazing, but she sat down beneath a willow-tree, an… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The heifer began grazing, but she sat down beneath a willow-tree, and threw her flax down beside her, and began weeping with all her might. Who acts: heifer, woman. 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 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The heifer began grazing, but she sat down beneath a willow-tree, and threw her flax down beside her, and began weeping with all her might.

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**Who acts:** heifer, woman · **What happens:** begin, graze, sit down, throw down, weep · **To what, where:** willow tree, flax

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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, woman), 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:pg29672:15:23
# text = The heifer began grazing, but she sat down beneath a willow-tree, and threw her flax down beside her, and began weeping with all her might.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	heifer	heifer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	grazing	graze	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	down	down	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	willow	willow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	down	down	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
21	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
26	weeping	weep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	xcomp	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	29	det:predet	_	_
29	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
30	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the heifer |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **graze** | gerund | the heifer *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **sit down** | past | woman |  |  | a willow tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beneath tree=Location |
| 4 | **throw down** | past | woman *not said here* | woman's flax |  |  |  | beside woman; down *property* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent flax=Theme beside she=Destination |
| 5 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **weep** | might |  |  |  |  |  | with woman | 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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