---
title: But it was no good, for he could not keep the bear silent, and he be… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But it was no good, for he could not keep the bear silent, and he began singing his song. Who acts: DOG, guest. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 3, sentence 92

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But it was no good, for he could not keep the bear silent, and he began singing his song.

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**Who acts:** DOG, guest · **What happens:** be, not keep, begin, sing · **To what, where:** bear, song

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (DOG, guest), 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:pg62509:3:92
# text = But it was no good, for he could not keep the bear silent, and he began singing his song.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	xcomp	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | DOG |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **keep** | could | guest | the bear |  |  |  | silent *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bear=Theme |
| 3 | **begin** | past | guest |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | guest *not said here* | guest's song |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme |
| 5 | **sing** |  | guest |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=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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