---
title: So then the poor nobleman began pondering and saying to himself, “Wh… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So then the poor nobleman began pondering and saying to himself, “What have I done? Who acts: poor nobleman. 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 143

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So then the poor nobleman began pondering and saying to himself, “What have I done?

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**Who acts:** poor nobleman · **What happens:** begin, ponder, say, do · **To what, where:** nobleman · **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 (poor nobleman), 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:pg62509:13:143
# text = So then the poor nobleman began pondering and saying to himself, “What have I done?
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	nobleman	nobleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	pondering	ponder	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the poor nobleman |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **ponder** | gerund | the poor nobleman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | gerund | the poor nobleman *not said here* |  | nobleman |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | present · perfect | the poor nobleman *= nobleman* |  |  |  |  | What *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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