---
title: He only thought this, but the Peasant guessed his thought and said,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He only thought this, but the Peasant guessed his thought and said, “Why am I grey? Who acts: Peasant. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 27, sentence 7

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He only thought this, but the Peasant guessed his thought and said, “Why am I grey?

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**Who acts:** Peasant · **What happens:** think, guess, say, be · **To what, where:** this, thought · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 27. 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:pg62509:27:7
# text = He only thought this, but the Peasant guessed his thought and said, “Why am I grey?
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	only	only	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Peasant	Peasant	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	guessed	guess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
17	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | Peasant | this |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot this=Theme |
| 2 | **guess** | past | the Peasant | Peasant's thought |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thought=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the Peasant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the Peasant *= peasant* |  |  |  |  | grey *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **think** |  | Peasant |  |  |  |  |  | nom thought «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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