---
title: Then the serpent looked at the prince's servants one after the other… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the serpent looked at the prince's servants one after the other, and said, "Well, let them try!" Who acts: serpent, servants. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 2, sentence 64

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Then the serpent looked at the prince's servants one after the other, and said, "Well, let them try!"

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**Who acts:** serpent, servants · **What happens:** look, say, let, try · **To what, where:** one, servants · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Story of the Unlucky Days, 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 (serpent, servants), 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:pg29672:26:64
# text = Then the serpent looked at the prince's servants one after the other, and said, "Well, let them try!"
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	obl	_	_
11	after	after	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	21	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | the serpent | one after the other |  |  | then | at the prince's servants | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at servant=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the serpent *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | servants *= servant* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **try** *in a quote* | infinitive | servants *= servant* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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