---
title: The little Tsar picked up the rottenest wood he could find and flung… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The little Tsar picked up the rottenest wood he could find and flung it on the fire, to make believe he was making haste, but sprinkled it at the same time with water, so that it might not burn up too quickly, and yet the kettle soon began to boil. Who acts: little Tsar, Tsar, haste, kettle. A sente
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Voices At the Window, part 3, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The little Tsar picked up the rottenest wood he could find and flung it on the fire, to make believe he was making haste, but sprinkled it at the same time with water, so that it might not burn up too quickly, and yet the kettle soon began to boil.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little Tsar, Tsar, haste, kettle · **What happens:** pick up, find, fling, make, believe, sprinkle · **To what, where:** rottenest wood, wood, fire, haste · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Voices At the Window, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little Tsar, Tsar, haste, kettle), 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:pg29672:6:27
# text = The little Tsar picked up the rottenest wood he could find and flung it on the fire, to make believe he was making haste, but sprinkled it at the same time with water, so that it might not burn up too quickly, and yet the kettle soon began to boil.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	rottenest	rotten	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	amod	_	_
8	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
21	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	ccomp	_	_
25	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	sprinkled	sprinkle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
37	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	42	mark	_	_
38	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	fixed	_	_
39	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
40	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
41	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	42	advmod	_	_
42	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
43	up	up	ADP	RP	_	42	compound:prt	_	_
44	too	too	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
45	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
48	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	kettle	kettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nsubj	_	_
51	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	52	advmod	_	_
52	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
53	to	to	PART	TO	_	54	mark	_	_
54	boil	boil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pick up** | past | the little Tsar | the rottenest wood |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wood=Topic |
| 2 | **find** | could | Tsar | the rottenest wood *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wood=Topic |
| 3 | **fling** | past | the little Tsar *not said here* | wood |  | the fire |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent it=Theme on fire=Destination |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | the little Tsar *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **believe** | infinitive | the little Tsar *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **make** | past · progressive | Tsar | haste |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent haste=Product |
| 7 | **sprinkle** | past |  | haste |  |  | time |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 8 | **not** **burn up** | might | haste |  |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **begin** | past | the kettle |  |  |  | yet | soon *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 10 | **boil** | to-infinitive | the kettle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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