---
title: Then Vasilísa the Wise, the eldest, struck the earth, turned into a… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Vasilísa the Wise, the eldest, struck the earth, turned into a spoonbill, and flew away from the Tsarévich. Who acts: Vasilísa. 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 21

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Then Vasilísa the Wise, the eldest, struck the earth, turned into a spoonbill, and flew away from the Tsarévich.

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**Who acts:** Vasilísa · **What happens:** strike, turn, fly away · **To what, where:** earth, spoonbill, Tsarévich

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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 (Vasilísa), 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:pg62509:30:21
# text = Then Vasilísa the Wise, the eldest, struck the earth, turned into a spoonbill, and flew away from the Tsarévich.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	Vasilísa	Vasilísa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Wise	Wise	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	turned	turn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	spoonbill	spoonbill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Tsarévich	Tsarévich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	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 | Vasilísa | the earth |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent earth=Patient |
| 2 | **turn** | participle |  | the earth *not said here* |  | a spoonbill |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into spoonbill=Trajectory |
| 3 | **fly away** | past | Vasilísa *not said here* |  |  | the Tsarévich |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from tsarévich=Trajectory |

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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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