---
title: Then the king summoned the poor nobleman, and asked him, “Did you ke… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the king summoned the poor nobleman, and asked him, “Did you keep watch on my daughters?” Who acts: king, nobleman. 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 17

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Then the king summoned the poor nobleman, and asked him, “Did you keep watch on my daughters?”

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**Who acts:** king, nobleman · **What happens:** summon, ask, keep · **To what, where:** poor nobleman, nobleman, watch · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (king, 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:pg62509:14:17
# text = Then the king summoned the poor nobleman, and asked him, “Did you keep watch on my daughters?”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	summoned	summon	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	nobleman	nobleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
17	watch	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **summon** | past | the king | the poor nobleman |  |  | then |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nobleman=Recipient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the king *not said here* |  | nobleman |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **keep** *in a quote* | past · do-support | nobleman | watch |  |  |  | on my daughters | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent watch=Theme on daughter=Location |

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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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