---
title: Whether he went early to the smithy or not, nothing prospered; and,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Whether he went early to the smithy or not, nothing prospered; and, instead of greeting the devil kindly, he went and took his very biggest hammer and knocked the devil three times on his forehead, and then set to work. Who acts: man, nothing. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, O
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 16, sentence 52

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Whether he went early to the smithy or not, nothing prospered; and, instead of greeting the devil kindly, he went and took his very biggest hammer and knocked the devil three times on his forehead, and then set to work.

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**Who acts:** man, nothing · **What happens:** go, prosper, greet, take, knock, set · **To what, where:** smithy, devil, biggest hammer, forehead

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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 (man, nothing), 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:pg62509:16:52
# text = Whether he went early to the smithy or not, nothing prospered; and, instead of greeting the devil kindly, he went and took his very biggest hammer and knocked the devil three times on his forehead, and then set to work.
1	Whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
4	early	early	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	smithy	smithy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
11	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	nsubj	_	_
12	prospered	prosper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	18	mark	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	fixed	_	_
18	greeting	greet	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	ccomp	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	devil	devil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
28	very	very	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	biggest	big	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	30	amod	_	_
30	hammer	hammer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	devil	devil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	nummod	_	_
36	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	43	advmod	_	_
43	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | man |  |  | the smithy |  | early *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to smithy=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **prosper** | past | nothing |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **greet** *speech: greet* | gerund | nothing *not said here* |  | the devil |  |  | kindly *property* | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent devil=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **take** | past | man *not said here* | man's biggest hammer |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hammer=Theme |
| 6 | **knock** | past | man *not said here* | the devil |  | man's forehead | time |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent devil=Theme on forehead=Destination |
| 7 | **set** | infinitive | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **work** | to-infinitive | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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