---
title: He went on and on, may-be far, may-be near, may-be short, may-be lon… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He went on and on, may-be far, may-be near, may-be short, may-be long, and arrived at a lake, on which three wild geese were swimming. Who acts: wish, three wild geese. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 12, sentence 131

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He went on and on, may-be far, may-be near, may-be short, may-be long, and arrived at a lake, on which three wild geese were swimming.

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**Who acts:** wish, three wild geese · **What happens:** go, be, arrive, swim · **To what, where:** lake

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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 (wish, three wild geese), 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:pg62509:12:131
# text = He went on and on, may-be far, may-be near, may-be short, may-be long, and arrived at a lake, on which three wild geese were swimming.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	on	on	ADV	RB	_	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
7	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
10	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
15	near	near	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
20	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
25	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	obl	_	_
35	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	37	nummod	_	_
36	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	geese	goose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nsubj	_	_
38	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | wish |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | far *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | may |  |  |  |  |  | near *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | may |  |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | may |  |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **arrive** | past | wish *not said here* |  |  | a lake |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **swim** | past · progressive | three wild geese |  |  |  |  | which *obl* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on which=Trajectory |

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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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