---
title: Then the serpent came up to the forest and began to gnaw at it; and… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the serpent came up to the forest and began to gnaw at it; and at last he gnawed his way right through it. Who acts: serpent. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Voices At the Window, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Voices At the Window, part 2, sentence 31

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Then the serpent came up to the forest and began to gnaw at it; and at last he gnawed his way right through it.

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**Who acts:** serpent · **What happens:** come up, begin, gnaw · **To what, where:** forest, way, last

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This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Voices At the Window, 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), 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:pg29672:5:31
# text = Then the serpent came up to the forest and began to gnaw at it; and at last he gnawed his way right through it.
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	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	gnaw	gnaw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	gnawed	gnaw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	right	right	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	through	through	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come up** | past | the serpent |  |  | the forest | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to forest=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the serpent *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **gnaw** | to-infinitive | the serpent *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at forest | vn chew-39.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at it=Patient |
| 4 | **gnaw** | past | serpent | serpent's way |  | last |  | through way | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |

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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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