---
title: The prevailing tone is sadness; but there is no absence of humour; y… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The prevailing tone is sadness; but there is no absence of humour; yet fun merely happens, and is inherent; there is no broad, boisterous fun. Who acts: prevailing tone, absence, fun, broad boisterous fun. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tr
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 1, sentence 47

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The prevailing tone is sadness; but there is no absence of humour; yet fun merely happens, and is inherent; there is no broad, boisterous fun.

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**Who acts:** prevailing tone, absence, fun, broad boisterous fun · **What happens:** prevail, be, happen, absent · **To what, where:** sadness, humour

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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 (prevailing tone, absence, fun, broad boisterous fun), 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:pg62509:1:48
# text = The prevailing tone is sadness; but there is no absence of humour; yet fun merely happens, and is inherent; there is no broad, boisterous fun.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	prevailing	prevail	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	amod	_	_
3	tone	tone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	sadness	sadness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	humour	humour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	fun	fun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	happens	happen	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	inherent	inherent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	25	expl	_	_
25	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
26	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	30	det	_	_
27	broad	broad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	boisterous	boisterous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	fun	fun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prevail** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | present | the prevailing tone | sadness |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | present | no absence of humour |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **happen** | present | fun |  |  |  |  | merely *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | present | fun *not said here* |  |  |  |  | inherent *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** | present | no broad boisterous fun |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **absent** |  |  | humour |  |  |  |  | nom absence «state transitive»: of=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:** «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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