--- title: Time went by—not much, nor little; a heavy thundrous cloud gathered,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics description: Time went by—not much, nor little; a heavy thundrous cloud gathered, and, with frightsome lightning and hail, played on the peasant’s field, cut through his crops like a scythe, and left not one blade to tell the tale. Who acts: heavy thundrous cloud. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afan --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/43/) [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/) / 43 # Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 26, sentence 43 Time went by—not much, nor little; a heavy thundrous cloud gathered, and, with frightsome lightning and hail, played on the peasant’s field, cut through his crops like a scythe, and left not one blade to tell the tale. **Who acts:** heavy thundrous cloud · **What happens:** go, gather, play, cut, not leave, tell · **To what, where:** little, frightsome lightning, field, one blade, tale · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (heavy thundrous cloud), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg62509:26:43 # text = Time went by—not much, nor little; a heavy thundrous cloud gathered, and, with frightsome lightning and hail, played on the peasant’s field, cut through his crops like a scythe, and left not one blade to tell the tale. 1 Time time NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 obl:unmarked _ _ 2 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 by by ADP IN _ 6 case _ SpaceAfter=No 4 — - PUNCT : _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 5 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 6 advmod _ _ 6 much much ADV RB _ 2 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 8 nor nor CCONJ CC Polarity=Neg 9 cc _ _ 9 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 2 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 10 ; ; PUNCT : _ 15 punct _ _ 11 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 12 heavy heavy ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 amod _ _ 13 thundrous thundrous ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 amod _ _ 14 cloud cloud NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 nsubj _ _ 15 gathered gather VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 19 with with ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 20 frightsome frightsome ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 amod _ _ 21 lightning lightning NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obl _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 23 hail hail NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 25 played play VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 21 acl _ _ 26 on on ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 peasant peasant NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 29 ’s 's PART POS _ 28 case _ _ 30 field field NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 32 cut cut VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 21 conj _ _ 33 through through ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 34 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 35 nmod:poss _ _ 35 crops crop NOUN NNS Number=Plur 32 obl _ _ 36 like like ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 37 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 38 scythe scythe NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 39 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 40 and and CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 41 left leave VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 15 conj _ _ 42 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 41 advmod _ _ 43 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 44 nummod _ _ 44 blade blade NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 obj _ _ 45 to to PART TO _ 46 mark _ _ 46 tell tell VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 41 advcl _ _ 47 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 48 det _ _ 48 tale tale NOUN NN Number=Sing 46 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 49 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **go** | past | | little | | | time | | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by much=Location | | 2 | **gather** | past | a heavy thundrous cloud | | | | | with frightsome lightning and hail | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent with lightning=Co-Patient | | 3 | **play** | participle | | frightsome lightning and hail *not said here* | | the peasant's field | | | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **cut** | participle | a heavy thundrous cloud *not said here* | | | | | through peasant's crops like a scythe | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent through crop=Patient | | 5 | **not** **leave** | past | a heavy thundrous cloud *not said here* | one blade | | | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blade=Theme | | 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | a heavy thundrous cloud *not said here* | the tale | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/42/) - next →: [sentence 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/44/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/)