---
title: “No reason to start lecturing me,” the Evil Spirit answered. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “No reason to start lecturing me,” the Evil Spirit answered. Who acts: Evil Spirit. 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/pg62509/16/78/)

<!-- 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/) / 78

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 16, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“No reason to start lecturing me,” the Evil Spirit answered.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Evil Spirit · **What happens:** start, lecture, answer · **To what, where:** Evil Spirit · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (Evil Spirit), 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:pg62509:16:78
# text = “No reason to start lecturing me,” the Evil Spirit answered.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	3	det	_	_
3	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	acl	_	_
6	lecturing	lecture	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	xcomp	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	Evil	Evil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	Spirit	Spirit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the Evil Spirit *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **lecture** *speech: other* *in a quote* | gerund | the Evil Spirit *not said here* | the Evil Spirit *= spirit* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the Evil Spirit |  |  |  |  | no reason *ccomp* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=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 77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/16/77/)
- next →: [sentence 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/16/79/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/16/)