---
title: Their way may have been long, and it may have been short; and they a… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Their way may have been long, and it may have been short; and they at last reached a well. Who acts: way, wallet. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 17, sentence 73

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Their way may have been long, and it may have been short; and they at last reached a well.

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**Who acts:** way, wallet · **What happens:** be, reach · **To what, where:** a

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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 (way, wallet), 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:pg62509:17:73
# text = Their way may have been long, and it may have been short; and they at last reached a well.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
6	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
10	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
12	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	cop	_	_
13	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	last	last	ADV	RB	_	19	obl	_	_
19	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	obj	_	_
21	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | may · perfect | wallet's way |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | may · perfect | way |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **reach** | past | wallet | a |  |  |  | well *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent a=Theme at last=Asset |

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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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