---
title: As soon as he stopped at the gate a devil asked who was coming. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as he stopped at the gate a devil asked who was coming. Who acts: sin, devil. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 13, sentence 110

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As soon as he stopped at the gate a devil asked who was coming.

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**Who acts:** sin, devil · **What happens:** stop, ask, come · **To what, where:** gate · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sin, devil), 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:pg62509:13:110
# text = As soon as he stopped at the gate a devil asked who was coming.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	devil	Devil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | past | sin |  |  | the gate |  | soon *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at gate=Location |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a devil |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  |  | who *nsubj* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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