---
title: “You were not there three little minutes, but three whole years,” th… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “You were not there three little minutes, but three whole years,” the Lord answered. Who acts: You, Lord. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/15/171/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / [Opening, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/15/) / 171

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 15, sentence 171

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“You were not there three little minutes, but three whole years,” the Lord answered.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** You, Lord · **What happens:** not be, answer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (You, Lord), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:15:171
# text = “You were not there three little minutes, but three whole years,” the Lord answered.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	0	root	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
12	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | past | You |  |  |  | minute | there *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the Lord |  |  |  | year |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 170](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/15/170/)
- next →: [sentence 172](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/15/172/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/15/)