---
title: “I was engaged as sentry in the imperial garden, and a big bird came… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I was engaged as sentry in the imperial garden, and a big bird came and flew round the trees and shattered them. Who acts: big bird. 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 18

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“I was engaged as sentry in the imperial garden, and a big bird came and flew round the trees and shattered them.

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**Who acts:** big bird · **What happens:** engage, come, fly, shatter · **To what, where:** soldier, imperial garden, trees

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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 (big 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:pg62509:25:18
# text = “I was engaged as sentry in the imperial garden, and a big bird came and flew round the trees and shattered them.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	engaged	engage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	sentry	sentry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	imperial	imperial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
19	round	round	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	shattered	shatter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **engage** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | the soldier *= soldier* |  | the imperial garden |  | as sentry | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Theme as sentry=Attribute |
| 2 | **come** *in a quote* | past | a big bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fly** *in a quote* | past | a big bird *not said here* |  |  | the trees |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme round tree=Trajectory |
| 4 | **shatter** *in a quote* | past | a big bird *not said here* | trees *= tree* |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |

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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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