---
title: The soldier fired at the bird, but could not kill it; and could only… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The soldier fired at the bird, but could not kill it; and could only wing it on the right wing, and three feathers fell out of the wing, but the bird took to flight. Who acts: soldier, garden, three feathers, bird. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 24, with its dep
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 24, sentence 134

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The soldier fired at the bird, but could not kill it; and could only wing it on the right wing, and three feathers fell out of the wing, but the bird took to flight.

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**Who acts:** soldier, garden, three feathers, bird · **What happens:** fire, not kill, wing, fall, take · **To what, where:** soldier, garden, right wing, wing

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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, garden, three feathers, bird), 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:pg62509:24:134
# text = The soldier fired at the bird, but could not kill it; and could only wing it on the right wing, and three feathers fell out of the wing, but the bird took to flight.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
3	fired	fire	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	wing	wing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	parataxis	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	wing	wing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
27	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	wing	wing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
36	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
37	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fire** | participle |  | the soldier *not said here* |  |  |  | at the bird | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent at bird=Destination |
| 2 | **not** **kill** | could | the soldier | garden |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **wing** | could | garden |  |  | the right wing |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fall** | past | three feathers |  |  | the wing |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme out wing=Location |
| 5 | **take** | past | the bird |  |  |  |  | to flight *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to flight=Result |

<!-- .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.

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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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