---
title: And either from the fact that they were growing poorer, or that they… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And either from the fact that they were growing poorer, or that they were becoming older, the mother and father of Iván—for this was the name of Nicholas’s son—had become feeble. Who acts: chest, this. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/40/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / [Opening, part 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/) / 40

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 21, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And either from the fact that they were growing poorer, or that they were becoming older, the mother and father of Iván—for this was the name of Nicholas’s son—had become feeble.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** chest, this · **What happens:** grow, become, be · **To what, where:** fact

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (chest, this), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:21:40
# text = And either from the fact that they were growing poorer, or that they were becoming older, the mother and father of Iván—for this was the name of Nicholas’s son—had become feeble.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	either	either	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	advmod	_	_
3	from	from	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	acl	_	_
10	poorer	poor	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	becoming	become	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
17	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	Iván	Iván	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	Nicholas	Nicholas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’s	's	PART	POS	_	32	case	_	_
34	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
38	feeble	feeble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	37	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past · progressive | chest | the fact  the mother and father of Iván *not said here* |  |  |  | poor *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location fact=Theme |
| 2 | **become** | past · progressive | chest |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | this |  |  |  |  | for the name; of Nicholas's son | tree rules |
| 4 | **become** | past · perfect |  |  |  | the fact  the mother and father of Iván |  | feeble *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/41/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/)