---
title: On the road the soldier asked him, “Tell me, why did you fill the bl… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: On the road the soldier asked him, “Tell me, why did you fill the bladders with the blood?” Who acts: soldier, wizard. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/2/143/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/2/) / 143

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 143

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On the road the soldier asked him, “Tell me, why did you fill the bladders with the blood?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** soldier, wizard · **What happens:** ask, tell, fill · **To what, where:** wizard, road, soldier, bladders · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (soldier, wizard), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:2:143
# text = On the road the soldier asked him, “Tell me, why did you fill the bladders with the blood?”
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
11	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	fill	fill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	bladders	bladder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the soldier |  | wizard | the road |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | the soldier *= soldier* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 3 | **fill** *in a quote* | past · do-support | wizard | the bladders |  |  |  | with the blood | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent bladder=Patient with blood=Instrument |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 142](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/2/142/)
- next →: [sentence 144](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/2/144/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/2/)