---
title: “He ought to dam it up well, and as soon as the water breaks through… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “He ought to dam it up well, and as soon as the water breaks through, throw in a sheaf of straw, and all your work would be no good.” Who acts: water, work, your. 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 119

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“He ought to dam it up well, and as soon as the water breaks through, throw in a sheaf of straw, and all your work would be no good.”

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**Who acts:** water, work, your · **What happens:** dam up, break through, throw, be, work · **To what, where:** hole, sheaf

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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 (water, work, your), 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:pg62509:20:119
# text = “He ought to dam it up well, and as soon as the water breaks through, throw in a sheaf of straw, and all your work would be no good.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	dam	dam	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
8	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	as	as	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	breaks	break	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	through	through	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	throw	throw	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	sheaf	sheaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
27	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	29	det:predet	_	_
28	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	cop	_	_
32	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	33	det	_	_
33	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dam up** *in a quote* | ought |  | hole |  |  |  | well *property* | vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Destination |
| 2 | **break through** *in a quote* | present | the water |  |  |  |  | soon, through *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **throw** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  | a sheaf of straw |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent in sheaf=Destination |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | would | your work |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **work** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=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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