---
title: Iván Tsarévich stole under it so warily, and seized it by its tail,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Iván Tsarévich stole under it so warily, and seized it by its tail, only he could not keep hold of it; and had only one feather out of its tail. Who acts: Iván, IVÁN. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 10, sentence 72

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Iván Tsarévich stole under it so warily, and seized it by its tail, only he could not keep hold of it; and had only one feather out of its tail.

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**Who acts:** Iván, IVÁN · **What happens:** steal, seize, not keep, have, hold · **To what, where:** BIRD, hold, one feather, tail

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Iván, IVÁN), 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:pg62509:10:72
# text = Iván Tsarévich stole under it so warily, and seized it by its tail, only he could not keep hold of it; and had only one feather out of its tail.
1	Iván	Iván	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Tsarévich	Tsarévich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	under	under	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	warily	warily	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	only	only	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
21	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
27	only	only	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	feather	feather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	out	out	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **steal** | past | Iván |  |  |  |  | under BIRD; warily *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme under it=Location |
| 2 | **seize** | past | Iván *not said here* | BIRD |  |  |  | by BIRD's tail | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **keep** | could | IVÁN *= iván* | hold of BIRD |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | Iván *not said here* | one feather |  | BIRD's tail |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Patient |
| 5 | **hold** |  |  | BIRD |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act 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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