---
title: One day he saw an old peasant passing by with sable, marten, beaver,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: One day he saw an old peasant passing by with sable, marten, beaver, and fox-skins; and he asked him: “Old man! whence do you come?” Who acts: King, old peasant, peasant. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/17/42/)

<!-- 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/) / 42

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 17, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day he saw an old peasant passing by with sable, marten, beaver, and fox-skins; and he asked him: “Old man! whence do you come?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King, old peasant, peasant · **What happens:** see, pass, ask, come · **To what, where:** old peasant, peasant · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (King, old peasant, peasant), 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:pg62509:17:42
# text = One day he saw an old peasant passing by with sable, marten, beaver, and fox-skins; and he asked him: “Old man! whence do you come?”
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	sable	sable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	marten	marten	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	skins	skin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
27	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
31	whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
32	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | King | a old peasant |  |  | day | fox skins *obl* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer peasant=Stimulus |
| 2 | **pass** | gerund | a old peasant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by sable marten and beaver | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by marten=Location |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | King |  | peasant |  |  | Old man *ccomp* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | present · do-support | peasant |  |  |  |  | whence *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «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 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/17/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/17/43/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/17/)