---
title: Where the river-gods [vodyanóy], or the wood-sprites [lěši], have hu… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Where the river-gods [vodyanóy], or the wood-sprites [lěši], have human form, it is to a certain extent because they have been contaminated with the Christian Devil. Who acts: river gods, form, Christian Devil. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 1, with its dependen
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 1, sentence 50

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Where the river-gods \[vodyanóy\], or the wood-sprites \[lěši\], have human form, it is to a certain extent because they have been contaminated with the Christian Devil.

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**Who acts:** river gods, form, Christian Devil · **What happens:** have, be, contaminate · **To what, where:** human form, gods

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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 (river gods, form, Christian Devil), 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:pg62509:1:51
# text = Where the river-gods [vodyanóy], or the wood-sprites [lěši], have human form, it is to a certain extent because they have been contaminated with the Christian Devil.
1	Where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	19	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
6	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	vodyanóy	vodyanóy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	sprites	sprite	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
15	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	lěši	lěši	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
19	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
20	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	extent	extent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
29	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	contaminated	contaminate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	advcl	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	Christian	Christian	PROPN	NNP	_	37	flat	_	_
37	Devil	Devil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | the river gods or the wood sprites | human form |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent form=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | present | form |  |  |  |  | to a certain extent | tree rules |
| 3 | **contaminate** | present · perfect · passive | the Christian Devil | gods *= god* |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent subject=Destination |

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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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