---
title: They all went down a flight of stairs, and the poor nobleman quietly… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They all went down a flight of stairs, and the poor nobleman quietly got off his bed, put on the cap of invisibility, and followed them. Who acts: sisters, poor nobleman. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 14, sentence 3

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They all went down a flight of stairs, and the poor nobleman quietly got off his bed, put on the cap of invisibility, and followed them.

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**Who acts:** sisters, poor nobleman · **What happens:** go down, get off, put, follow · **To what, where:** flight, bed, cap, sisters

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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 (sisters, poor 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:pg62509:14:3
# text = They all went down a flight of stairs, and the poor nobleman quietly got off his bed, put on the cap of invisibility, and followed them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	nobleman	nobleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
16	off	off	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	cap	cap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	invisibility	invisibility	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go down** | past | sisters *= sister* | a flight of stairs |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **get off** | past | the poor nobleman | nobleman's bed |  |  |  | quietly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bed=Stimulus |
| 3 | **put** | participle | the poor nobleman *not said here* |  |  | the cap of invisibility |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on cap=Destination |
| 4 | **follow** | past | sisters *= sister* *not said here* | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «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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