---
title: So the sisters, the fair maidens, struck the grey earth and turned i… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So the sisters, the fair maidens, struck the grey earth and turned into spoonbills, spread their wings, and flew far away. Who acts: sisters. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 30, sentence 14

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So the sisters, the fair maidens, struck the grey earth and turned into spoonbills, spread their wings, and flew far away.

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**Who acts:** sisters · **What happens:** strike, turn, spread, fly · **To what, where:** grey earth, spoonbills, wings

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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 (sisters), 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:pg62509:30:14
# text = So the sisters, the fair maidens, struck the grey earth and turned into spoonbills, spread their wings, and flew far away.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	spoonbills	spoonbill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	spread	spread	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
24	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	_
25	away	away	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past | the sisters and the fair maidens | the grey earth |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent earth=Patient |
| 2 | **turn** | past | the sisters and the fair maidens *not said here* |  |  | spoonbills |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into spoonbill=Trajectory |
| 3 | **spread** | present |  | sisters's wings |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wing=Theme |
| 4 | **fly** | past | the sisters and the fair maidens *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=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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