---
title: He began to hunt and to chase after them, and he chased them into su… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He began to hunt and to chase after them, and he chased them into such thickets, precipices and mountains as no tale can tell and no pen can describe. Who acts: war, tale, pen. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 19, sentence 121

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He began to hunt and to chase after them, and he chased them into such thickets, precipices and mountains as no tale can tell and no pen can describe.

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**Who acts:** war, tale, pen · **What happens:** begin, hunt, chase, tell, describe · **To what, where:** peoples, such thickets · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (war, tale, pen), 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:pg62509:19:121
# text = He began to hunt and to chase after them, and he chased them into such thickets, precipices and mountains as no tale can tell and no pen can describe.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	hunt	hunt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	chase	chase	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
8	after	after	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	chased	chase	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	thickets	thicket	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	precipices	precipice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	24	det	_	_
24	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	29	det	_	_
29	pen	pen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	describe	describe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | war |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **hunt** | to-infinitive | war *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **chase** | to-infinitive | war *not said here* |  |  |  | after peoples *= people* |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent after they=Theme |
| 4 | **chase** | past | war | peoples *= people* |  | such thickets and precipices and mountains |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme into thicket=Trajectory |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | can | no tale |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **describe** | can | no pen |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=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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