---
title: And he, in the meantime, went to his old evil-tempered housekeeper a… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And he, in the meantime, went to his old evil-tempered housekeeper and bade her devise some means of eliciting whether Vasíli Vasílyevich were a maiden. Who acts: King, some, Vasíli, Tsar. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 18, sentence 52

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And he, in the meantime, went to his old evil-tempered housekeeper and bade her devise some means of eliciting whether Vasíli Vasílyevich were a maiden.

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**Who acts:** King, some, Vasíli, Tsar · **What happens:** go, temper, mean, elicit, be, devise · **To what, where:** devise, old tempered housekeeper

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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 (King, some, Vasíli, Tsar), 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:pg62509:18:52
# text = And he, in the meantime, went to his old evil-tempered housekeeper and bade her devise some means of eliciting whether Vasíli Vasílyevich were a maiden.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	meantime	meantime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
12	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	tempered	temper	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	amod	_	_
15	housekeeper	housekeeper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	bade	bade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	devise	devise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
20	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	nsubj	_	_
21	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
22	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	eliciting	elicit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
24	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	Vasíli	Vasíli	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
26	Vasílyevich	Vasílyevich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	flat	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | King | Tsar's devise |  | King's old tempered housekeeper and bade |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to housekeeper=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **temper** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | evil *compound* | tree rules |
| 3 | **mean** | present | some |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **elicit** | gerund | some *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition |
| 5 | **is** | past | Vasíli |  |  |  |  | maiden *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **devise** |  | Tsar |  |  |  |  |  | nom devise «possession transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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