---
title: Then the Prince was angry and said, “Why art thou telling such tales?” — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the Prince was angry and said, “Why art thou telling such tales?” Who acts: Prince, thou. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 31, sentence 100

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Then the Prince was angry and said, “Why art thou telling such tales?”

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**Who acts:** Prince, thou · **What happens:** be, say, tell · **To what, where:** such tales · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, thou), 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:pg62509:31:100
# text = Then the Prince was angry and said, “Why art thou telling such tales?”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
11	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nsubj	_	_
13	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	_
14	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	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 | the Prince |  |  |  | then | angry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present · progressive | thou | such tales |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient |

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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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