---
title: So the peasant boy began to beseech Christ to have mercy on her. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So the peasant boy began to beseech Christ to have mercy on her. Who acts: peasant boy. 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 12

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So the peasant boy began to beseech Christ to have mercy on her.

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**Who acts:** peasant boy · **What happens:** begin, beseech, have · **To what, where:** Christ, mercy

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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 (peasant boy), 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:pg62509:20:12
# text = So the peasant boy began to beseech Christ to have mercy on her.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	peasant	peasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	beseech	beseech	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	Christ	Christ	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
11	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the peasant boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **beseech** | to-infinitive | the peasant boy *not said here* | Christ |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | to-infinitive | the peasant boy *not said here* | mercy |  |  |  | on mother | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mercy=Patient |

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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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