---
title: Round the house there were twelve poles, and on eleven of the poles… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Round the house there were twelve poles, and on eleven of the poles there were the skulls of men: only one as yet was untenanted. Who acts: twelve poles. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 24, 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/pg62509/24/48/)

<!-- 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 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/24/) / 48

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 24, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Round the house there were twelve poles, and on eleven of the poles there were the skulls of men: only one as yet was untenanted.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** twelve poles · **What happens:** be, untenant · **To what, where:** eleven

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (twelve poles), 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:pg62509:24:48
# text = Round the house there were twelve poles, and on eleven of the poles there were the skulls of men: only one as yet was untenanted.
1	Round	round	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	poles	pole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	eleven	eleven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	poles	pole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
15	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	16	expl	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	skulls	skull	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
22	only	only	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nsubj	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	untenanted	untenant	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | twelve poles |  |  | eleven of the poles; there |  | round the house; one *nsubj* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on eleven=Location |
| 2 | **untenant** | past · passive |  |  |  |  | yet |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/24/47/)
- next →: [sentence 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/24/49/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/24/)