---
title: “Brothers,” they said, “somebody must have been eavesdropping on us,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Brothers,” they said, “somebody must have been eavesdropping on us, for the peasant’s hand grew again, the maiden is healed, and the mill-wheel is turning!” Who acts: Iván, somebody, hand, mill wheel. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 20, sentence 129

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“Brothers,” they said, “somebody must have been eavesdropping on us, for the peasant’s hand grew again, the maiden is healed, and the mill-wheel is turning!”

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**Who acts:** Iván, somebody, hand, mill wheel · **What happens:** say, eavesdrop, grow, heal, turn · **To what, where:** maiden · **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 (Iván, somebody, hand, mill wheel), 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:pg62509:20:129
# text = “Brothers,” they said, “somebody must have been eavesdropping on us, for the peasant’s hand grew again, the maiden is healed, and the mill-wheel is turning!”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	somebody	somebody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	13	nsubj	_	_
10	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
12	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	aux	_	_
13	eavesdropping	eavesdrop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’s	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
23	again	again	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	healed	heal	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
32	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	wheel	wheel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
35	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | past | Iván |  |  |  |  | Brothers *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **eavesdrop** *in a quote* | must · perfect · progressive | somebody |  |  |  |  | on us | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on we=Theme |
| 3 | **grow** *in a quote* | past | the peasant's hand |  |  |  | again |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **heal** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | the maiden |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **turn** *in a quote* | present · progressive | the mill wheel |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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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