---
title: On the way he met his servant, who had climbed a birch-tree and was… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: On the way he met his servant, who had climbed a birch-tree and was trembling for fear. Who acts: Iván, servant. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 17, 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/pg62509/17/156/)

<!-- 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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/17/) / 156

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 17, sentence 156

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On the way he met his servant, who had climbed a birch-tree and was trembling for fear.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Iván, servant · **What happens:** meet, climb, tremble · **To what, where:** servant, way, birch tree

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Iván, servant), 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:pg62509:17:156
# text = On the way he met his servant, who had climbed a birch-tree and was trembling for fear.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	climbed	climb	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | Iván | Iván's servant |  | the way |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **climb** | past · perfect | Iván's servant | a birch tree |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location tree=Theme |
| 3 | **tremble** | past · progressive | Iván *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for fear | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 155](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/17/155/)
- next →: [sentence 157](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/17/157/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/17/)