---
title: He served St. Nicholas for some years, and all his earnings were tha… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He served St. Nicholas for some years, and all his earnings were that he had neither house nor home, nor a roof over his head. Who acts: PRIEST, earnings. 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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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 12, sentence 3

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He served St. Nicholas for some years, and all his earnings were that he had neither house nor home, nor a roof over his head.

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**Who acts:** PRIEST, earnings · **What happens:** serve, have, be · **To what, where:** Nicholas, house, roof, head

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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 (PRIEST, earnings), 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:pg62509:12:3
# text = He served St. Nicholas for some years, and all his earnings were that he had neither house nor home, nor a roof over his head.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	served	serve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	St.	St.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:desc	_	_
4	Nicholas	Nicholas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
7	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	12	det:predet	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	earnings	earning	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	18	cc:preconj	_	_
18	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	20	cc	_	_
20	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	24	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
25	over	over	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **serve** | past | PRIEST | Nicholas  St. |  |  | year |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nicholas=Attribute |
| 2 | **have** | past | PRIEST | house nor home |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** | past | PRIEST's earnings | a roof |  | PRIEST's head |  |  | 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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