---
title: In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, once there lived a soldier… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, once there lived a soldier who had served long and faithfully and knew all about the Tsar’s service, the reviews, and always came up to parade looking clean and smart. Who acts: soldier, Tsar. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, p
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 24, sentence 109

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In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, once there lived a soldier who had served long and faithfully and knew all about the Tsar’s service, the reviews, and always came up to parade looking clean and smart.

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**Who acts:** soldier, Tsar · **What happens:** live, serve, know, come up, parade, look · **To what, where:** soldier, certain kingdom

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (soldier, Tsar), 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:pg62509:24:109
# text = In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, once there lived a soldier who had served long and faithfully and knew all about the Tsar’s service, the reviews, and always came up to parade looking clean and smart.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	12	advmod	_	_
12	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
13	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	faithfully	faithfully	ADV	RB	_	19	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
24	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	about	about	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’s	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	reviews	review	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	36	advmod	_	_
36	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
37	up	up	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	parade	parade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	advcl	_	_
40	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	39	xcomp	_	_
41	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	xcomp	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	smart	smart	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a soldier |  | a certain kingdom; there |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme soldier=Location |
| 2 | **serve** | past · perfect | a soldier |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **know** | past |  |  |  |  |  | about the Tsar's service and the reviews; all *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer about service=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come up** | past |  |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **parade** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **look** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | clean *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 7 | **service** |  | the Tsar |  |  |  |  |  | nom service «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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