---
title: And he answered, "Let him be tied to the tails of four wild horses,… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And he answered, "Let him be tied to the tails of four wild horses, and drive them into the endless steppe that they may tear him to pieces there, and the ravens and crows may come and pick his bones." Who acts: death, sons, ravens. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Two Princes
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Two Princes, part 1, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he answered, "Let him be tied to the tails of four wild horses, and drive them into the endless steppe that they may tear him to pieces there, and the ravens and crows may come and pick his bones."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** death, sons, ravens · **What happens:** answer, let, tie, drive, tear, come · **To what, where:** death, sons, endless steppe, bones · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Two Princes, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (death, sons, ravens), 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:pg29672:22:51
# text = And he answered, "Let him be tied to the tails of four wild horses, and drive them into the endless steppe that they may tear him to pieces there, and the ravens and crows may come and pick his bones."
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	tied	tie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	xcomp	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
15	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	endless	endless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	steppe	steppe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	tear	tear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
32	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	ravens	raven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	crows	crow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	conj	_	_
39	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	pick	pick	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	40	conj	_	_
43	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | death |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | death |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tie** *in a quote* | infinitive · passive | death *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the tails of four wild horses | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle PP»: to tail=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **drive** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | sons *= son* |  | the endless steppe |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme into steppe=Trajectory |
| 5 | **tear** *in a quote* | may | sons *= son* | death |  | there |  | to pieces *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent he=Patient to piece=Result |
| 6 | **come** *in a quote* | may | the ravens and crows |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **pick** *in a quote* | infinitive | the ravens and crows *not said here* | death's bones |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient |

<!-- .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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