--- title: "Why should I not whistle, seeing that the serpent has bidden us thr… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics description: "Why should I not whistle, seeing that the serpent has bidden us thresh out his barn by the morning light, so that straw lies by straw, chaff by chaff, and grain by grain?" Who acts: serpent, straw. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 1, with its d --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/121/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/) / [The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/) / 121 # Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 1, sentence 121 "Why should I not whistle, seeing that the serpent has bidden us thresh out his barn by the morning light, so that straw lies by straw, chaff by chaff, and grain by grain?" **Who acts:** serpent, straw · **What happens:** not whistle, see, bid, thresh out, lie · **To what, where:** grain, serpent, us, barn · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Story of the Unlucky Days, 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 (serpent, straw), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg29672:25:121 # text = "Why should I not whistle, seeing that the serpent has bidden us thresh out his barn by the morning light, so that straw lies by straw, chaff by chaff, and grain by grain?" 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 Why why ADV WRB PronType=Int 6 advmod _ _ 3 should should AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 6 aux _ _ 4 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 5 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 6 advmod _ _ 6 whistle whistle VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 8 punct _ _ 8 seeing see VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 6 advcl _ _ 9 that that SCONJ IN _ 13 mark _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 serpent serpent NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 nsubj:pass _ _ 12 has have AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 13 aux _ _ 13 bidden bid VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 8 ccomp _ _ 14 us we PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 13 iobj _ _ 15 thresh thresh VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 13 xcomp _ _ 16 out out ADP RP _ 15 compound:prt _ _ 17 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 18 nmod:poss _ _ 18 barn barn NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obj _ _ 19 by by ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 20 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 21 morning morning NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 compound _ _ 22 light light NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 24 so so SCONJ IN ExtPos=SCONJ 27 mark _ _ 25 that that SCONJ IN _ 24 fixed _ _ 26 straw straw NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 nsubj _ _ 27 lies lie VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 15 parataxis _ _ 28 by by ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 29 straw straw NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 31 chaff chaff NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 conj _ _ 32 by by ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 33 chaff chaff NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 36 grain grain NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 obl _ _ 37 by by ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 38 grain grain NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 39 ? ? PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 40 " " PUNCT '' _ 6 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **whistle** *in a quote* | should | the serpent *= serpent* | grain by grain | | | | | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **see** *in a quote* | gerund | the serpent *= serpent* *not said here* | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 3 | **bid** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive | | the serpent | us | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **thresh out** *in a quote* | infinitive | | Golik's barn | | | | by the morning light | tree rules | | 5 | **lie** *in a quote* | present | straw | | | | | by straw and chaff; by chaff | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by straw=Location | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/120/) - next →: [sentence 122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/122/) - ↑ back to [The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/)