---
title: The man wanted to answer, “What are you talking about, woman? — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The man wanted to answer, “What are you talking about, woman? Who acts: man, you. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 25, sentence 134

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The man wanted to answer, “What are you talking about, woman?

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**Who acts:** man, you · **What happens:** want, answer, talk · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, you), 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:pg62509:25:135
# text = The man wanted to answer, “What are you talking about, woman?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	obl	_	_
9	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: ask* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **talk** *in a quote* | present · progressive | you |  |  |  |  | about woman; What *obl* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about woman=Topic |

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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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