---
title: But then he began to weep bitter tears. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But then he began to weep bitter tears. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 29, sentence 103

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But then he began to weep bitter tears.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** begin, weep · **To what, where:** bitter tears

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg62509:29:103
# text = But then he began to weep bitter tears.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	weep	weep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	bitter	bitter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | man |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **weep** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | bitter tears |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent tear=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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