---
title: Then three pairs of hands appeared, seized the oats and carried them… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then three pairs of hands appeared, seized the oats and carried them off. Who acts: three pairs. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 14, sentence 146

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Then three pairs of hands appeared, seized the oats and carried them off.

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**Who acts:** three pairs · **What happens:** appear, seize, carry off · **To what, where:** oats

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three pairs), 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:pg62509:14:146
# text = Then three pairs of hands appeared, seized the oats and carried them off.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	pairs	pair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
6	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	oats	oat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	off	off	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appear** | past | three pairs of hands |  |  |  | then |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **seize** | past | three pairs of hands *not said here* | the oats |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent oat=Theme |
| 3 | **carry off** | past | three pairs of hands *not said here* | oats *= oat* |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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