---
title: “It is forty years I have been pasturing on these fields; not one bi… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “It is forty years I have been pasturing on these fields; not one bird has ever flown by, not one wild beast has ever rambled by.” Who acts: youth, forty years. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 30, 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/pg62509/30/103/)

<!-- 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 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/30/) / 103

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 30, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It is forty years I have been pasturing on these fields; not one bird has ever flown by, not one wild beast has ever rambled by.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** youth, forty years · **What happens:** be, pasture, fly by, ramble · **To what, where:** forty years, fields, one bird, one wild beast

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youth, forty years), 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:pg62509:30:103
# text = “It is forty years I have been pasturing on these fields; not one bird has ever flown by, not one wild beast has ever rambled by.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	forty	forty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	aux	_	_
9	pasturing	pasture	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	fields	field	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	19	advmod	_	_
19	flown	fly	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	parataxis	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
24	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	28	advmod	_	_
28	rambled	ramble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
29	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | youth | forty years |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pasture** *in a quote* | present · perfect · progressive | forty years |  |  | this fields |  | I *nsubj* | vn pocket-9.10 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on field=Destination |
| 3 | **fly by** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | one bird |  |  | ever |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **ramble** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | one wild beast |  |  | ever |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory |

<!-- .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 102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/30/102/)
- next →: [sentence 104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/30/104/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/30/)