---
title: And the Tsar thought and thought, and he said, “How can you be of an… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And the Tsar thought and thought, and he said, “How can you be of any service to me?” Who acts: Tsar, VASILÍSA. 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 36

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And the Tsar thought and thought, and he said, “How can you be of any service to me?”

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**Who acts:** Tsar, VASILÍSA · **What happens:** think, say, be · **To what, where:** VASILÍSA · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Tsar, VASILÍSA), 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:pg62509:29:36
# text = And the Tsar thought and thought, and he said, “How can you be of any service to me?”
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
14	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	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 | the Tsar |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the Tsar *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | VASILÍSA *= vasilísa* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | can |  |  | VASILÍSA *= vasilísa* |  |  | of any service | 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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