---
title: Then they crossed a bridge: the poor man considered that he would ha… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they crossed a bridge: the poor man considered that he would hardly escape the Court with his life; so he jumped over the bridge, in order to commit suicide. Who acts: food, poor man, man. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/9/)

<!-- 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/) / 9

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 21, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then they crossed a bridge: the poor man considered that he would hardly escape the Court with his life; so he jumped over the bridge, in order to commit suicide.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** food, poor man, man · **What happens:** cross, consider, escape, jump, commit · **To what, where:** bridge, Court, suicide

<!-- .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 (food, poor man, man), 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:pg62509:21:9
# text = Then they crossed a bridge: the poor man considered that he would hardly escape the Court with his life; so he jumped over the bridge, in order to commit suicide.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	crossed	cross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	considered	consider	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	escape	escape	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	with	with	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	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
25	over	over	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	32	mark	_	_
30	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	fixed	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	commit	commit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
33	suicide	suicide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | past | food | a bridge |  |  | then |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bridge=Patient |
| 2 | **consider** | past | the poor man |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **escape** | would | man | the Court |  |  |  | with man's life; hardly *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme court=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **jump** | past | man |  |  | the bridge |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over bridge=Trajectory |
| 5 | **commit** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | suicide |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent suicide=Theme |

<!-- .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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/10/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/)