---
title: Once, a long time ago, there lived a peasant. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once, a long time ago, there lived a peasant. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/26/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / [Opening, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/) / 26

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once, a long time ago, there lived a peasant.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** live · **To what, where:** peasant

<!-- .vabout -->
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: what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:26:26
# text = Once, a long time ago, there lived a peasant.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a peasant |  | there |  | ago, once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme peasant=Location |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/25/)
- next →: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/27/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/)