---
title: “I was frightened,” said the Tsar, “lest I should be drowned.” — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I was frightened,” said the Tsar, “lest I should be drowned.” Who acts: Tsar. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/29/54/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / [Opening, part 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/29/) / 54

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 29, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I was frightened,” said the Tsar, “lest I should be drowned.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Tsar · **What happens:** frighten, say, drown · **To what, where:** Tsar · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:29:54
# text = “I was frightened,” said the Tsar, “lest I should be drowned.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	drowned	drown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **frighten** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | the Tsar *= tsar* |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Tsar |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **drown** *in a quote* | should · passive |  | the Tsar *= tsar* |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/29/53/)
- next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/29/55/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/29/)