---
title: Iván Tsarévich sat down and began to finger the strings when a mouse… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Iván Tsarévich sat down and began to finger the strings when a mouselet crept out of the corner and spoke with a human voice: “Run away, Tsarévich, as fast as you can. Who acts: Iván, mouselet. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 23, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 23, sentence 18

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Iván Tsarévich sat down and began to finger the strings when a mouselet crept out of the corner and spoke with a human voice: “Run away, Tsarévich, as fast as you can.

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**Who acts:** Iván, mouselet · **What happens:** sit down, begin, creep out, speak, run away · **To what, where:** strings, corner · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Iván, mouselet), 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:pg62509:23:18
# text = Iván Tsarévich sat down and began to finger the strings when a mouselet crept out of the corner and spoke with a human voice: “Run away, Tsarévich, as fast as you can.
1	Iván	Iván	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Tsarévich	Tsarévich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	TO	_	8	case	_	_
8	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	strings	string	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	mouselet	mouselet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
15	out	out	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
26	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
28	away	away	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	Tsarévich	Tsarévich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	as	as	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	27	advmod	_	_
34	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
35	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | Iván |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **begin** | past | Iván *not said here* | the strings |  |  |  | to finger | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent string=Eventuality |
| 3 | **creep out** | past | a mouselet | the corner |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location corner=Theme |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Iván *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with a human voice | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with voice=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **run away** *in a quote* | infinitive | Iván *not said here* |  |  |  |  | Tsarévich *vocative*; away, fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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