---
title: From sheer wretchedness he contrived himself this contrivance. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: From sheer wretchedness he contrived himself this contrivance. Who acts: angel. 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 141

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From sheer wretchedness he contrived himself this contrivance.

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**Who acts:** angel · **What happens:** contrive · **To what, where:** angel, sheer wretchedness

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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 (angel), 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:pg62509:25:142
# text = From sheer wretchedness he contrived himself this contrivance.
1	From	from	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	sheer	sheer	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	wretchedness	wretchedness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	contrived	contrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obj	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	contrivance	contrivance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **contrive** | past | angel | angel |  | sheer wretchedness |  | this contrivance *obj* | 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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