---
title: But the soldier was no fool; and as they were flying out he laid hol… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the soldier was no fool; and as they were flying out he laid hold of one old devil—laid hold of him tight by his paw. Who acts: soldier, devils, paw. 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 33

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But the soldier was no fool; and as they were flying out he laid hold of one old devil—laid hold of him tight by his paw.

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**Who acts:** soldier, devils, paw · **What happens:** be, fly out, lay, hold · **To what, where:** fool, 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 (soldier, devils, paw), 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:pg62509:13:33
# text = But the soldier was no fool; and as they were flying out he laid hold of one old devil—laid hold of him tight by his paw.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
16	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	devil	devil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	laid	laid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nmod	_	_
26	tight	tight	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
27	by	by	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	paw	paw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the soldier | no fool and laid hold of matter by matter's paw |  |  |  | laid hold of matter by matter's paw *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fly out** | past · progressive | devils *= devil* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **lay** | past | soldier |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hold** | infinitive | soldier *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of one old devil | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **hold** |  | matter's paw | matter |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient by=agent |

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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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