---
title: “I did not venture to say anything; but if I might, I should like to… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I did not venture to say anything; but if I might, I should like to ask some questions.” Who acts: Bába. 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 4

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“I did not venture to say anything; but if I might, I should like to ask some questions.”

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**Who acts:** Bába · **What happens:** not venture, say, like, ask · **To what, where:** anything, questions · **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 (Bába), 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:pg62509:15:4
# text = “I did not venture to say anything; but if I might, I should like to ask some questions.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	venture	venture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
21	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **venture** *in a quote* | past · do-support | Bába |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Bába *not said here* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent anything=Topic |
| 3 | **like** *in a quote* | should | Bába |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | Bába *not said here* | some questions |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |

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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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