---
title: He always observed St. Nicholas’ day, but never, never, that of St.… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He always observed St. Nicholas’ day, but never, never, that of St. Elias; he even worked on it. Who acts: 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.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 26, sentence 27

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He always observed St. Nicholas’ day, but never, never, that of St. Elias; he even worked on it.

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**Who acts:** peasant · **What happens:** observe, work · **To what, where:** that

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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 (peasant), 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:pg62509:26:27
# text = He always observed St. Nicholas’ day, but never, never, that of St. Elias; he even worked on it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
3	observed	observe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	St.	St.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod:desc	_	_
5	Nicholas	Nicholas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	St.	St.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod:desc	_	_
17	Elias	Elias	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	even	even	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	worked	work	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **observe** | past | peasant | that of Elias  St. |  |  | day | always *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **work** | past | peasant |  |  |  |  | on PROPHET | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on it=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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