---
title: The merchant read the letter, and began curing his wife with a twelv… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The merchant read the letter, and began curing his wife with a twelve-tongued whip: and she very soon recovered. Who acts: merchant, wife. 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 82

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The merchant read the letter, and began curing his wife with a twelve-tongued whip: and she very soon recovered.

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**Who acts:** merchant, wife · **What happens:** read, begin, cure, recover · **To what, where:** letter, wife

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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 (merchant, wife), 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:pg62509:28:82
# text = The merchant read the letter, and began curing his wife with a twelve-tongued whip: and she very soon recovered.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	read	read	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	curing	cure	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	xcomp	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
14	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	tongued	tongued	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	whip	whip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	very	very	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	advmod	_	_
23	recovered	recover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	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 | **read** | past | the merchant | the letter |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Topic |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **cure** | gerund | the merchant *not said here* | son's wife |  |  |  | with a tongued whip | vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer wife=Source |
| 4 | **recover** | past | wife |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=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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