---
title: He began to ask him questions, but never an answer, never a movement! — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He began to ask him questions, but never an answer, never a movement! Who acts: He. 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 4

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He began to ask him questions, but never an answer, never a movement!

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**Who acts:** He · **What happens:** begin, ask · **To what, where:** questions, him

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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 (He), 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:pg62509:25:4
# text = He began to ask him questions, but never an answer, never a movement!
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	movement	movement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | He |  |  |  |  | a answer and a movement *parataxis* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | He *not said here* | questions | him *= he* |  |  |  | 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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