---
title: Once upon a time there was a smith who had a son six years old—a stu… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there was a smith who had a son six years old—a sturdy and sensible lad. Who acts: smith. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 16, sentence 39

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Once upon a time there was a smith who had a son six years old—a sturdy and sensible lad.

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**Who acts:** smith · **What happens:** be, have · **To what, where:** son

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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 (smith), 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:pg62509:16:39
# text = Once upon a time there was a smith who had a son six years old—a sturdy and sensible lad.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	smith	smith	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	sturdy	sturdy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	sensible	sensible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a smith |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a smith | a son |  |  |  | a old sturdy and sensible lad *obj* | tree rules |

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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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