---
title: The Nightingale Robber heard his end approaching, and felt a forebod… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The Nightingale Robber heard his end approaching, and felt a foreboding of a terrible ill; and before Ilyá Múromets had advanced twenty versts, he whistled with his powerful robber’s whistle. Who acts: Nightingale Robber, end, ROBBER, powerful robber. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afan
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 31, sentence 78

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The Nightingale Robber heard his end approaching, and felt a foreboding of a terrible ill; and before Ilyá Múromets had advanced twenty versts, he whistled with his powerful robber’s whistle.

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**Who acts:** Nightingale Robber, end, ROBBER, powerful robber · **What happens:** hear, approach, feel, advance, whistle · **To what, where:** end, foreboding, twenty versts

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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 (Nightingale Robber, end, ROBBER, powerful robber), 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:pg62509:31:78
# text = The Nightingale Robber heard his end approaching, and felt a foreboding of a terrible ill; and before Ilyá Múromets had advanced twenty versts, he whistled with his powerful robber’s whistle.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Nightingale	Nightingale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Robber	Robber	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	foreboding	foreboding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	before	before	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	Ilyá	Ilyá	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Múromets	múromet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	advanced	advance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
24	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	versts	verst	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	whistled	whistle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	robber	robber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’s	's	PART	POS	_	32	case	_	_
34	whistle	whistle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the Nightingale Robber | ROBBER's end |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer end=Stimulus |
| 2 | **approach** | gerund | ROBBER's end *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **feel** | past | the Nightingale Robber *not said here* | a foreboding |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foreboding=Theme |
| 4 | **advance** | past · perfect | the Nightingale Robber *not said here* | twenty versts |  |  | before Ilyá Múromets |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer verst=Patient |
| 5 | **whistle** | past | ROBBER |  |  |  |  | with ROBBER's powerful robber's whistle | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with whistle=Theme |
| 6 | **whistle** |  | ROBBER's powerful robber |  |  |  |  |  | nom whistle «event intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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