---
title: “I was,” said the Tsar, “I was thinking if only you would rescue me!” — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I was,” said the Tsar, “I was thinking if only you would rescue me!” Who acts: Tsar, you. 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 60

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“I was,” said the Tsar, “I was thinking if only you would rescue me!”

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**Who acts:** Tsar, you · **What happens:** be, say, think, rescue · **To what, where:** Tsar · **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, you), 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:pg62509:29:60
# text = “I was,” said the Tsar, “I was thinking if only you would rescue me!”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	rescue	rescue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *in a quote* | past | the Tsar *= tsar* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the Tsar |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past · progressive | the Tsar *= tsar* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **rescue** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | would | you | the Tsar *= tsar* |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=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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