---
title: And they answered, “How should we not come home?—wild beasts from al… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And they answered, “How should we not come home?—wild beasts from all the four quarters of the world assembled round us and almost tore us to bits.” Who acts: poles, we, four quarters. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 24, sentence 68

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And they answered, “How should we not come home?—wild beasts from all the four quarters of the world assembled round us and almost tore us to bits.”

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**Who acts:** poles, we, four quarters · **What happens:** answer, not come, assemble, tore · **To what, where:** wild beasts, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (poles, we, four quarters), 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:pg62509:24:68
# text = And they answered, “How should we not come home?—wild beasts from all the four quarters of the world assembled round us and almost tore us to bits.”
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
11	home	home	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	20	det:predet	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	quarters	quarter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	assembled	assemble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
25	round	round	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	tore	tore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
30	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	bits	bit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: ask* | past | poles *= pole* | wild beasts from all four quarters of the world |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **come** *in a quote* | should | we |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **assemble** *in a quote* | participle | all four quarters of the world *not said here* | us |  |  |  | round *property* | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **tore** *in a quote* | past | all four quarters of the world *not said here* | us |  |  |  | to bits; almost *property* | tree rules |

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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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