---
title: The old woman answered, “As long as the horse is alive nothing can b… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The old woman answered, “As long as the horse is alive nothing can be brought about. Who acts: old woman. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 28, sentence 66

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The old woman answered, “As long as the horse is alive nothing can be brought about.

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**Who acts:** old woman · **What happens:** answer, be · **To what, where:** horse · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman), 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:pg62509:28:66
# text = The old woman answered, “As long as the horse is alive nothing can be brought about.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	As	as	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
13	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	_
18	about	about	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | can · present · passive |  | the horse |  |  |  | nothing *nsubj:pass*; about, bring *property* | tree rules |

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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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