---
title: Then his horse began to sink fast into the earth, until the knight d… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then his horse began to sink fast into the earth, until the knight dug his spurs into his horse’s fat haunches. Who acts: horse, knight, SVYATOGÓR. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 16, 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/pg62509/16/15/)

<!-- 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 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/16/) / 15

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 16, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then his horse began to sink fast into the earth, until the knight dug his spurs into his horse’s fat haunches.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** horse, knight, SVYATOGÓR · **What happens:** begin, sink, dig, spur · **To what, where:** earth, spurs

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horse, knight, SVYATOGÓR), 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:pg62509:16:15
# text = Then his horse began to sink fast into the earth, until the knight dug his spurs into his horse’s fat haunches.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	sink	sink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	dug	dig	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	spurs	spur	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	haunches	haunch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | SVYATOGÓR's horse |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **sink** | to-infinitive | SVYATOGÓR's horse *not said here* |  |  | the earth |  | fast *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **dig** | past | the knight | SVYATOGÓR's spurs |  |  |  | into SVYATOGÓR's horse's fat haunches | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.patient»: agent=Agent spur=Instrument into haunch=Patient |
| 4 | **spur** |  | SVYATOGÓR *= svyatogór* |  |  |  |  |  | nom spur «communication transitive»: poss=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 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/16/14/)
- next →: [sentence 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/16/16/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/16/)