---
title: But the stepmother’s daughters nobody would look at; and the stepmot… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the stepmother’s daughters nobody would look at; and the stepmother grew more evil than ever and answered all her suitors: “I will not give my youngest daughter before I give the elders.” Who acts: daughters, stepmother. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 14, wi
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 14, sentence 62

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But the stepmother’s daughters nobody would look at; and the stepmother grew more evil than ever and answered all her suitors: “I will not give my youngest daughter before I give the elders.”

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**Who acts:** daughters, stepmother · **What happens:** look, grow, answer, not give, give · **To what, where:** suitors, youngest daughter, elders · **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 (daughters, stepmother), 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:pg62509:14:62
# text = But the stepmother’s daughters nobody would look at; and the stepmother grew more evil than ever and answered all her suitors: “I will not give my youngest daughter before I give the elders.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
6	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	8	nsubj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
15	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	16	advmod	_	_
16	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
17	than	than	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	16	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
21	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	suitors	suitor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
25	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	parataxis	_	_
30	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	32	amod	_	_
32	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	iobj	_	_
33	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	elders	elder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | would | the stepmother's daughters |  |  |  |  | nobody *nsubj* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **grow** | past | the stepmother |  |  |  |  | evil *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the stepmother *not said here* | VASILÍSA's suitors |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent suitor=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **give** *in a quote* | future | the stepmother *= stepmother* |  | my youngest daughter |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Theme |
| 5 | **give** *in a quote* | present | the stepmother *= stepmother* | the elders |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent elder=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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