---
title: He came to the palace, was seized, but prayed for mercy. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He came to the palace, was seized, but prayed for mercy. Who acts: Woodsprite. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 18, sentence 20

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He came to the palace, was seized, but prayed for mercy.

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**Who acts:** Woodsprite · **What happens:** come, seize, pray · **To what, where:** palace

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Woodsprite), 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:pg62509:18:20
# text = He came to the palace, was seized, but prayed for mercy.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	seized	seize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Woodsprite |  |  | the palace |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to palace=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **seize** | past · passive | Woodsprite *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP» |
| 3 | **pray** | past | Woodsprite *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for mercy | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for mercy=Theme |

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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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