---
title: Iván Tsarévich took the spindle and broke it in halves, threw the du… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Iván Tsarévich took the spindle and broke it in halves, threw the dull end behind him and the sharp one in front; and his beautiful young wife stood in front of him, and they went home. Who acts: Iván, beautiful young wife, halves. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 57

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Iván Tsarévich took the spindle and broke it in halves, threw the dull end behind him and the sharp one in front; and his beautiful young wife stood in front of him, and they went home.

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**Who acts:** Iván, beautiful young wife, halves · **What happens:** take, break, throw, stand, go · **To what, where:** spindle, halves, dull end, front

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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 (Iván, beautiful young wife, halves), 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:pg62509:2:57
# text = Iván Tsarévich took the spindle and broke it in halves, threw the dull end behind him and the sharp one in front; and his beautiful young wife stood in front of him, and they went home.
1	Iván	Iván	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Tsarévich	Tsarévich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	spindle	spindle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	halves	half	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
27	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
37	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
39	home	home	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Iván | the spindle |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spindle=Theme |
| 2 | **break** | past | Iván *not said here* | spindle |  | halves |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |
| 3 | **throw** | past |  | the dull end |  |  |  | behind Iván; the sharp one in front *conj* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent end=Theme behind he=Destination |
| 4 | **stand** | past | Iván's beautiful young wife |  |  | front of Iván |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in front=Location |
| 5 | **go** | past | halves *= half* |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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