---
title: So long ago that neither our grandfathers, nor great-grandfathers, n… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So long ago that neither our grandfathers, nor great-grandfathers, nor our great-great-grandfathers, nor our great-great-great-grandfathers recollect it. Who acts: grandfathers. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 19, sentence 111

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So long ago that neither our grandfathers, nor great-grandfathers, nor our great-great-grandfathers, nor our great-great-great-grandfathers recollect it.

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**Who acts:** grandfathers · **What happens:** recollect · **To what, where:** name

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grandfathers), 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:pg62509:19:111
# text = So long ago that neither our grandfathers, nor great-grandfathers, nor our great-great-grandfathers, nor our great-great-great-grandfathers recollect it.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
3	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
5	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
6	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	grandfathers	grandfather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	12	cc	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	grandfathers	grandfather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	20	cc	_	_
15	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
16	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	grandfathers	grandfather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	30	cc	_	_
23	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
24	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	grandfathers	grandfather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
31	recollect	recollect	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **recollect** | present | our grandfathers nor great grandfathers nor our great great grandfathers nor our great great great grandfathers | name |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent it=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.

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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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