---
title: “No, Brother, without God’s blessing you can do nothing; you cannot… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “No, Brother, without God’s blessing you can do nothing; you cannot gain a groat.” Who acts: you, God. 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 89

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“No, Brother, without God’s blessing you can do nothing; you cannot gain a groat.”

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**Who acts:** you, God · **What happens:** do, not gain, bless · **To what, where:** nothing, Brother

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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 (you, God), 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:pg62509:20:89
# text = “No, Brother, without God’s blessing you can do nothing; you cannot gain a groat.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	Brother	Brother	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	without	without	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’s	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	blessing	blessing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	gain	gain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	groat	groat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *in a quote* | can | you | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **gain** *in a quote* | can | you | Brother |  |  |  | a groat *obj* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent groat=Theme |
| 3 | **bless** *in a quote* |  | God |  |  |  |  |  | nom blessing «act transitive»: 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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