---
title: Then twelve spoonbills flew along, struck the grey earth, and turned… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then twelve spoonbills flew along, struck the grey earth, and turned into fair maidens, who began bathing. Who acts: twelve spoonbills, fair maidens. 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 9

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Then twelve spoonbills flew along, struck the grey earth, and turned into fair maidens, who began bathing.

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**Who acts:** twelve spoonbills, fair maidens · **What happens:** fly, strike, turn, begin, bath · **To what, where:** grey earth, fair maidens

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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 (twelve spoonbills, fair maidens), 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:pg62509:30:9
# text = Then twelve spoonbills flew along, struck the grey earth, and turned into fair maidens, who began bathing.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	spoonbills	spoonbill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	along	along	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	bathing	bath	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | twelve spoonbills |  |  |  | then | along *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **strike** | past | twelve spoonbills *not said here* | the grey earth |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent earth=Patient |
| 3 | **turn** | past | twelve spoonbills *not said here* |  |  | fair maidens |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into maiden=Trajectory |
| 4 | **begin** | past | fair maidens |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **bath** | gerund | fair maidens *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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