---
title: Once there lived a poor peasant; and, however much he might toil and… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once there lived a poor peasant; and, however much he might toil and moil, he got nothing out of it. Who acts: peasant. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 32, sentence 140

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Once there lived a poor peasant; and, however much he might toil and moil, he got nothing out of it.

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**Who acts:** peasant · **What happens:** live, toil, get · **To what, where:** poor peasant, nothing, moil

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (peasant), 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:pg62509:32:140
# text = Once there lived a poor peasant; and, however much he might toil and moil, he got nothing out of it.
1	Once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	however	however	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	much	much	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	toil	toil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	moil	moil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	obj	_	_
21	out	out	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | peasant *not said here* | a poor peasant |  | there |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme peasant=Location |
| 2 | **toil** | might | peasant |  |  |  |  | moil *conj* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **get** | past | peasant | nothing |  | moil |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |

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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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