---
title: She wanted to know why the horses he kept were always so much shapel… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: She wanted to know why the horses he kept were always so much shapelier and statelier than those which the other herds looked after. Who acts: daughter, Tsarévna, horses. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 17, sentence 122

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She wanted to know why the horses he kept were always so much shapelier and statelier than those which the other herds looked after.

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**Who acts:** daughter, Tsarévna, horses · **What happens:** want, know, keep, be, look · **To what, where:** horses

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (daughter, Tsarévna, horses), 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:pg62509:17:122
# text = She wanted to know why the horses he kept were always so much shapelier and statelier than those which the other herds looked after.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	10	advmod	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	much	much	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	shapelier	shapely	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	parataxis	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	statelier	stately	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	14	conj	_	_
17	than	than	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	obl	_	_
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	herds	herd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
24	after	after	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | daughter |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | daughter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **keep** | past | Tsarévna | the horses *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | the horses |  |  |  |  | than those; shapely *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | the horses *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **look** | past |  |  |  |  |  | which *nsubj*; the other herds *nsubj*; after *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

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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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