---
title: The Witch who lives in the forest, rides the winds in a mortar, devo… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The Witch who lives in the forest, rides the winds in a mortar, devours human flesh, lives in a hut on cocks’ legs, is one of the commonest. Who acts: Witch. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 1, sentence 53

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The Witch who lives in the forest, rides the winds in a mortar, devours human flesh, lives in a hut on cocks’ legs, is one of the commonest.

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**Who acts:** Witch · **What happens:** live, ride, devour, be · **To what, where:** forest, winds, mortar, human flesh, hut, one

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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 (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:pg62509:1:54
# text = The Witch who lives in the forest, rides the winds in a mortar, devours human flesh, lives in a hut on cocks’ legs, is one of the commonest.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
3	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lives	live	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	rides	ride	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	winds	wind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	mortar	mortar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	devours	devour	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	lives	live	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	cocks	cock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	parataxis	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	commonest	common	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | present | the Witch |  |  | the forest |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in forest=Location |
| 2 | **ride** | present | the Witch | the winds |  | a mortar |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wind=Theme |
| 3 | **devour** | present | the Witch *not said here* | human flesh |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flesh=Patient |
| 4 | **live** | present | the Witch *not said here* |  |  | a hut |  | on cocks's legs | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hut=Location |
| 5 | **is a** | present |  | one |  |  |  | of the commonest | tree rules |

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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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