---
title: Then the old man asked him: “Tell me, good man, what do you wish? — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the old man asked him: “Tell me, good man, what do you wish? Who acts: old man, end. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/12/118/)

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 12, sentence 118

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Then the old man asked him: “Tell me, good man, what do you wish?

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**Who acts:** old man, end · **What happens:** ask, tell, wish · **To what, where:** end, good man, old man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, end), 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:pg62509:12:118
# text = Then the old man asked him: “Tell me, good man, what do you wish?
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	obj	_	_
16	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the old man |  | end |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | the old man *not said here* | good man | the old man *= man* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 3 | **wish** *in a quote* | present · do-support | end | good man |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |

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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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