---
title: He breathed smoke, and stood in front of the old man as though he we… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He breathed smoke, and stood in front of the old man as though he were rooted to the ground, and asked him, “What do you wish?” Who acts: earth. 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 122

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He breathed smoke, and stood in front of the old man as though he were rooted to the ground, and asked him, “What do you wish?”

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**Who acts:** earth · **What happens:** breathe, stand, root, ask, wish · **To what, where:** smoke, front, earth · **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 (earth), 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:pg62509:26:122
# text = He breathed smoke, and stood in front of the old man as though he were rooted to the ground, and asked him, “What do you wish?”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	breathed	breathe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
13	as	as	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
14	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	rooted	root	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	obj	_	_
28	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **breathe** | past | earth | smoke |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent smoke=Theme |
| 2 | **stand** | past | earth *not said here* |  |  | front of the old man |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in front=Location |
| 3 | **root** | past · passive |  | earth |  |  |  | to the ground | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | earth |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **wish** *in a quote* | present · do-support | earth |  |  |  |  | What *obj* | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |

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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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