---
title: “They traded in milk, and they mixed water with their milk; and now… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “They traded in milk, and they mixed water with their milk; and now for all eternity they must ladle out water.” Who acts: maidens. 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 4

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“They traded in milk, and they mixed water with their milk; and now for all eternity they must ladle out water.”

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**Who acts:** maidens · **What happens:** trade, mix, ladle out · **To what, where:** milk, water

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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 (maidens), 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:pg62509:20:4
# text = “They traded in milk, and they mixed water with their milk; and now for all eternity they must ladle out water.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	traded	trade	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	mixed	mix	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
16	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
19	eternity	eternity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	ladle	ladle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
23	out	out	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **trade** *in a quote* | past | maidens *= maiden* |  |  | milk |  |  | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **mix** *in a quote* | past | maidens *= maiden* | water |  |  |  | with maidens's milk | vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent water=Patient with milk=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **ladle out** *in a quote* | must | maidens *= maiden* | water |  |  | for all eternity; now |  | vn funnel-9.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent water=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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