---
title: “Now, children,” he said to them, “I shall die; do you come and read… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Now, children,” he said to them, “I shall die; do you come and read prayers over my grave.” Who acts: children, grandfathers. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 26, sentence 102

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“Now, children,” he said to them, “I shall die; do you come and read prayers over my grave.”

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**Who acts:** children, grandfathers · **What happens:** say, die, come, read · **To what, where:** grandfathers, prayers, grave · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children, grandfathers), 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:pg62509:26:102
# text = “Now, children,” he said to them, “I shall die; do you come and read prayers over my grave.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
22	prayers	prayer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
23	over	over	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | children |  | grandfathers *= grandfather* |  |  | tale *nsubj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **die** *in a quote* | shall | children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **come** *in a quote* | present · do-support | grandfathers *= grandfather* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **read** *in a quote* | infinitive | grandfathers *= grandfather* *not said here* | prayers |  | my grave |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prayer=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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