---
title: “Whatever is she living on?” the witch thought, and she gave her the… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Whatever is she living on?” the witch thought, and she gave her the same piece of bread next day, and told her eldest daughter to watch what Márya Tsarévna did. Who acts: Márya, witch. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 1, sentence 109

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“Whatever is she living on?” the witch thought, and she gave her the same piece of bread next day, and told her eldest daughter to watch what Márya Tsarévna did.

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**Who acts:** Márya, witch · **What happens:** live on, think, give, tell, watch, do · **To what, where:** Whatever, bread, Witch, eldest daughter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, 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 (Márya, witch), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:1:110
# text = “Whatever is she living on?” the witch thought, and she gave her the same piece of bread next day, and told her eldest daughter to watch what Márya Tsarévna did.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	obj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	living	live	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	29	amod	_	_
29	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	iobj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
32	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	35	obj	_	_
33	Márya	Márya	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
34	Tsarévna	Tsarévna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	flat	_	_
35	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live on** *in a quote* | present · progressive | Márya | Whatever |  |  |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme whatever=Location |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the witch |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **give** | past | Márya | bread | Witch |  | day |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient piece=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the witch *not said here* |  | Márya's eldest daughter |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent daughter=Recipient |
| 5 | **watch** | to-infinitive | the witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **do** | past | Márya |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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:** «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Project Gutenberg book 62509 (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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