---
title: Nicholas thought, and again went to the peasant, told him to buy two… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Nicholas thought, and again went to the peasant, told him to buy two tapers, one big and one small, and gave him instructions. Who acts: Nicholas. 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 89

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Nicholas thought, and again went to the peasant, told him to buy two tapers, one big and one small, and gave him instructions.

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**Who acts:** Nicholas · **What happens:** think, go, tell, buy, give · **To what, where:** NICHOLAS, two tapers, instructions · **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 (Nicholas), 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:pg62509:26:89
# text = Nicholas thought, and again went to the peasant, told him to buy two tapers, one big and one small, and gave him instructions.
1	Nicholas	Nicholas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	again	again	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	tapers	taper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	parataxis	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	_
27	instructions	instruction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Nicholas |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past |  |  |  |  | again | to the peasant | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to peasant=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Nicholas *not said here* |  | NICHOLAS |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **buy** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Nicholas *not said here* | two tapers |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent taper=Theme |
| 5 | **give** | past | Nicholas *not said here* | instructions | NICHOLAS |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient instruction=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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