---
title: The dust rose behind them like a column, such doughty youths were th… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The dust rose behind them like a column, such doughty youths were they to behold. Who acts: dust. 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 32

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The dust rose behind them like a column, such doughty youths were they to behold.

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**Who acts:** dust · **What happens:** rise

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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 (dust), 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:pg62509:20:32
# text = The dust rose behind them like a column, such doughty youths were they to behold.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	column	column	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	doughty	doughty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	youths	youth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	12	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rise** | past | the dust |  |  |  |  | behind youths *= youth*; like a column  such doughty youths | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent behind they=Location |

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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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