---
title: “As you, Lord, told us, the well was there, but it was so horrible t… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “As you, Lord, told us, the well was there, but it was so horrible that we could hardly look into it.” Who acts: well, we. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 15, sentence 158

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“As you, Lord, told us, the well was there, but it was so horrible that we could hardly look into it.”

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**Who acts:** well, we · **What happens:** tell, be, look · **To what, where:** us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (well, we), 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:pg62509:15:158
# text = “As you, Lord, told us, the well was there, but it was so horrible that we could hardly look into it.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	As	as	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	horrible	horrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  |  | us |  |  | as Lord  you | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent we=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | past | the well |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | past | well |  |  |  |  | horrible *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **look** *in a quote* | could | we |  |  |  |  | into well; hardly *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into it=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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