---
title: And about midnight very many devils assembled on the boat and began… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And about midnight very many devils assembled on the boat and began to tell each other what tricks they had played. Who acts: tricks. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 20, sentence 109

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And about midnight very many devils assembled on the boat and began to tell each other what tricks they had played.

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**Who acts:** tricks · **What happens:** assemble, begin, tell, play · **To what, where:** many devils, boat, each, tricks, midnight · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tricks), 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:pg62509:20:109
# text = And about midnight very many devils assembled on the boat and began to tell each other what tricks they had played.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	about	about	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	devils	devil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
7	assembled	assemble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	14	obj	_	_
16	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	fixed	_	_
17	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	18	det	_	_
18	tricks	trick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	played	play	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **assemble** | participle |  | many devils *not said here* |  | the boat |  |  | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  | each |  |  |  | what tricks *obj* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent each=Recipient trick=Topic |
| 4 | **play** | past · perfect | tricks *= trick* | what tricks *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trick=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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