---
title: Off they went helter-skelter to the smiths, and the matter was soon… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Off they went helter-skelter to the smiths, and the matter was soon arranged. Who acts: servants. 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 20

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Off they went helter-skelter to the smiths, and the matter was soon arranged.

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**Who acts:** servants · **What happens:** go, skelter, arrange · **To what, where:** helter, matter

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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 (servants), 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:pg62509:13:20
# text = Off they went helter-skelter to the smiths, and the matter was soon arranged.
1	Off	off	ADP	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	helter	helter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	skelter	skelter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	smiths	smith	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
15	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
16	arranged	arrange	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | servants *= servant* | helter |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location helter=Theme |
| 2 | **skelter** | infinitive | servants *= servant* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the smiths | tree rules |
| 3 | **arrange** | past · passive |  | the matter |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product |

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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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