---
title: The eldest went first, and sat and sat and watched and watched till… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The eldest went first, and sat and sat and watched and watched till he was tired of watching, and fell asleep. Who acts: eldest, father. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Three Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Three Brothers, sentence 4

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The eldest went first, and sat and sat and watched and watched till he was tired of watching, and fell asleep.

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**Who acts:** eldest, father · **What happens:** go, sit, watch, be, fall

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This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Three Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eldest, father), 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:pg29672:18:4
# text = The eldest went first, and sat and sat and watched and watched till he was tired of watching, and fell asleep.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
18	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the eldest |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **sit** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **watch** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **watch** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | past | father |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **watch** | gerund | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **fall** | past | the eldest *not said here* |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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:** «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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