---
title: But, under the bridge, a son was bathing his sick father, and the po… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But, under the bridge, a son was bathing his sick father, and the poor man fell plump on the old man and drowned him. Who acts: bridge, poor man. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 21, sentence 10

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But, under the bridge, a son was bathing his sick father, and the poor man fell plump on the old man and drowned him.

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**Who acts:** bridge, poor man · **What happens:** bath, fall, drown · **To what, where:** sick father, plump, man

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bridge, poor man), 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:pg62509:21:10
# text = But, under the bridge, a son was bathing his sick father, and the poor man fell plump on the old man and drowned him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	under	under	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	bathing	bath	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
20	plump	plump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	drowned	drown	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bath** | past · progressive | the bridge | bridge's sick father |  |  |  | a son *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the poor man | plump |  |  |  | on the old man | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient plump=Result |
| 3 | **drown** | past | the poor man *not said here* | man |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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