---
title: “I cannot weave and spin the linen,” said the old woman; “only a mai… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I cannot weave and spin the linen,” said the old woman; “only a maiden can who is staying with me.” Who acts: old woman, maiden. 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/pg62509/15/49/)

<!-- 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/) / 49

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 15, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I cannot weave and spin the linen,” said the old woman; “only a maiden can who is staying with me.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, maiden · **What happens:** not weave, spin, say, stay · **To what, where:** linen · **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 (old woman, maiden), 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:pg62509:15:49
# text = “I cannot weave and spin the linen,” said the old woman; “only a maiden can who is staying with me.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	weave	weave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	linen	linen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	only	only	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	staying	stay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **weave** *in a quote* | can | the old woman *= woman* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **spin** *in a quote* | infinitive | the old woman *= woman* *not said here* | the linen |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent linen=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **stay** *in a quote* | can · progressive | a maiden |  |  |  |  | with the old woman *= woman*; who *nsubj* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme with i=Location |

<!-- .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 48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/15/48/)
- next →: [sentence 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/15/50/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/15/)