---
title: The witch asked him to give her her brother, but the Sun would not. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The witch asked him to give her her brother, but the Sun would not. Who acts: witch. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/23/34/)

<!-- 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 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/23/) / 34

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 23, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The witch asked him to give her her brother, but the Sun would not.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** witch · **What happens:** ask, give · **To what, where:** meantime, brother, witch

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (witch), 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:pg62509:23:34
# text = The witch asked him to give her her brother, but the Sun would not.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Sun	Sun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the witch |  | meantime |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **give** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the witch *not said here* | witch's brother | witch |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient brother=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 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/23/33/)
- next →: [sentence 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/23/35/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/23/)