---
title: His father and mother fretted sorely because of him, and said, "What… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: His father and mother fretted sorely because of him, and said, "What are we to do with thee, O son? for thou art good for nothing. Who acts: father, we. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», Oh: the Tsar of the Forest, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, Oh: the Tsar of the Forest, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His father and mother fretted sorely because of him, and said, "What are we to do with thee, O son? for thou art good for nothing.

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**Who acts:** father, we · **What happens:** fret, say, be · **To what, where:** mother · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», Oh: the Tsar of the Forest. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, we), 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:pg29672:2:15
# text = His father and mother fretted sorely because of him, and said, "What are we to do with thee, O son? for thou art good for nothing.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
5	fretted	fret	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	sorely	sorely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	9	case	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	fixed	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	do	do	VERB	VB	Mood=Sub|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	O	O	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
26	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	28	nsubj	_	_
28	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
29	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fret** | participle |  | mother *not said here* |  |  |  | because Heaven; sorely *property* | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Heaven's father and mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  |  |  | with thee; O son *vocative*; do *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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