---
title: They told the king that a merchant had come to do allegiance, and th… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They told the king that a merchant had come to do allegiance, and the king sat on his throne and gave audience to Iván. Who acts: robbers, merchant, king. 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 87

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They told the king that a merchant had come to do allegiance, and the king sat on his throne and gave audience to Iván.

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**Who acts:** robbers, merchant, king · **What happens:** tell, come, do, sit, give · **To what, where:** king, allegiance, throne, audience, Iván · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (robbers, merchant, king), 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:pg62509:21:87
# text = They told the king that a merchant had come to do allegiance, and the king sat on his throne and gave audience to Iván.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	allegiance	allegiance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	throne	throne	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
23	audience	audience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	Iván	Iván	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | robbers *= robber* |  | the king |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent king=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | past · perfect | a merchant |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | a merchant *not said here* | allegiance |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent allegiance=Eventuality |
| 4 | **sit** | past | the king |  |  | king's throne |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on throne=Location |
| 5 | **give** | past | the king *not said here* | audience | Iván |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent audience=Theme to iván=Recipient |

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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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