---
title: They boiled and boiled till their mess of pottage was ready, and the… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They boiled and boiled till their mess of pottage was ready, and then they all sat down round the cauldron and took out their large ladles, and were just about to fall to--in fact they were blowing their food because it was so boiling hot--when Ivan let his big millstone plump down into the middle o
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Two Princes, part 2, sentence 61

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They boiled and boiled till their mess of pottage was ready, and then they all sat down round the cauldron and took out their large ladles, and were just about to fall to--in fact they were blowing their food because it was so boiling hot--when Ivan let his big millstone plump down into the middle of the cauldron, so that the pottage flew right into their eyes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** robbers, mess, Ivan, big millstone, pottage · **What happens:** boil, be, sit down, take out, fall, blow · **To what, where:** large ladles, food, middle, eyes, pottage

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Two Princes, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (robbers, mess, Ivan, big millstone), 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:pg29672:23:61
# text = They boiled and boiled till their mess of pottage was ready, and then they all sat down round the cauldron and took out their large ladles, and were just about to fall to--in fact they were blowing their food because it was so boiling hot--when Ivan let his big millstone plump down into the middle of the cauldron, so that the pottage flew right into their eyes.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	boiled	boil	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	boiled	boil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
5	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	mess	mess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	pottage	pottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
17	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	down	down	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	round	round	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	cauldron	cauldron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
24	out	out	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	ladles	ladle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
31	just	just	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	about	about	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	fall	fall	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
39	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	blowing	blow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	34	advcl	_	_
42	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
44	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	49	mark	_	_
45	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
46	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	cop	_	_
47	so	so	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
48	boiling	boil	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	49	amod	_	_
49	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	53	advmod	_	_
52	Ivan	Ivan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	53	nsubj	_	_
53	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	parataxis	_	_
54	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nmod:poss	_	_
55	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	56	amod	_	_
56	millstone	millstone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	nsubj	_	_
57	plump	plump	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	xcomp	_	_
58	down	down	ADV	RB	_	57	advmod	_	_
59	into	into	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
60	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
61	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obl	_	_
62	of	of	ADP	IN	_	64	case	_	_
63	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	64	det	_	_
64	cauldron	cauldron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	61	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	70	punct	_	_
66	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	70	mark	_	_
67	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	66	fixed	_	_
68	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	69	det	_	_
69	pottage	pottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	70	nsubj	_	_
70	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	conj	_	_
71	right	right	ADV	RB	_	74	advmod	_	_
72	into	into	ADP	IN	_	74	case	_	_
73	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	74	nmod:poss	_	_
74	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	70	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
75	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **boil** | past | robbers *= robber* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **boil** | participle | robbers *= robber* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | robbers's mess of pottage |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **sit down** | past | robbers *= robber* |  |  |  | then | round the cauldron | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **take out** | past | robbers *= robber* *not said here* | robbers's large ladles |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ladle=Theme |
| 6 | **fall** | past |  |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **blow** | past · progressive | robbers *= robber* | robbers's food |  |  |  | in fact | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent food=Patient in fact=Topic |
| 8 | **boil** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 9 | **is** | past | mess |  |  |  |  | hot *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **let** | past | Ivan |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 11 | **plump down** | infinitive | Ivan's big millstone |  |  | the middle of the cauldron |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 12 | **fly** | past | the pottage | robbers's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location eye=Theme |
| 13 | **mess** |  | robbers *= robber* | pottage |  |  |  |  | nom mess «state transitive»: poss=agent of=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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