---
title: If Death stands at his head, then he cannot live another day.” — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: If Death stands at his head, then he cannot live another day.” Who acts: Death. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/13/53/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / [Opening, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/13/) / 53

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 13, sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If Death stands at his head, then he cannot live another day.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Death · **What happens:** stand, not live · **To what, where:** head

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Death), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:13:53
# text = If Death stands at his head, then he cannot live another day.”
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	Death	Death	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stands	stand	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | Death |  |  | Death's head |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at head=Location |
| 2 | **not** **live** | can | Death |  |  |  | then; day |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/13/52/)
- next →: [sentence 54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/13/54/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/13/)