---
title: “What is it?” he said; “I must look at this.” — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “What is it?” he said; “I must look at this.” Who acts: glow. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 132

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“What is it?” he said; “I must look at this.”

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**Who acts:** glow · **What happens:** be, say, look · **To what, where:** glow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (glow), 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:pg62509:2:132
# text = “What is it?” he said; “I must look at this.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | glow |  |  |  | What *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | glow |  |  |  |  | road *nsubj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **look** *in a quote* | must | glow |  |  |  |  | at this | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at this=Theme |

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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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