---
title: “I cannot; they are already sold.” — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I cannot; they are already sold.” A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 22, sentence 103

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“I cannot; they are already sold.”

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**What happens:** sell · **To what, where:** goods

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg62509:22:103
# text = “I cannot; they are already sold.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
8	already	already	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	sold	sell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sell** *in a quote* | can · passive |  | goods |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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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