---
title: “It would be better,” she said, “to break your fast with a dog than… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “It would be better,” she said, “to break your fast with a dog than with such a filthy old beggar.” Who acts: lad, mother, your. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 19, sentence 134

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“It would be better,” she said, “to break your fast with a dog than with such a filthy old beggar.”

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**Who acts:** lad, mother, your · **What happens:** be, say, break, fast · **To what, where:** fast · **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 (lad, mother, your), 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:pg62509:19:134
# text = “It would be better,” she said, “to break your fast with a dog than with such a filthy old beggar.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
14	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	fast	fast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
19	than	than	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	25	det:predet	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	filthy	filthy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	beggar	beggar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | would | lad |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **break** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | your fast |  |  |  | with a dog; than such filthy old beggar | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent fast=Patient with dog=Instrument |
| 4 | **fast** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom fast «act intransitive»: 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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