---
title: The old woman met them and told them, “Guests have come in to spend… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The old woman met them and told them, “Guests have come in to spend the night.” Who acts: old woman, Guests. 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 64

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The old woman met them and told them, “Guests have come in to spend the night.”

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**Who acts:** old woman, Guests · **What happens:** meet, tell, come in, spend · **To what, where:** robbers · **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 (old woman, Guests), 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:pg62509:19:64
# text = The old woman met them and told them, “Guests have come in to spend the night.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	parataxis	_	_
14	in	in	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	spend	spend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | the old woman | robbers *= robber* |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the old woman *not said here* |  | robbers *= robber* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come in** *in a quote* | present · perfect | Guests |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **spend** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Guests *not said here* |  |  |  | night |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: 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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