---
title: When he flew out on business, he used to pile logs of wood in front… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When he flew out on business, he used to pile logs of wood in front of the den to prevent the Tsarévna escaping. Who acts: dragon. 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 19

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When he flew out on business, he used to pile logs of wood in front of the den to prevent the Tsarévna escaping.

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**Who acts:** dragon · **What happens:** fly out, use, pile, prevent, escape · **To what, where:** business, logs, front, Tsarévna

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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 (dragon), 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:pg62509:32:19
# text = When he flew out on business, he used to pile logs of wood in front of the den to prevent the Tsarévna escaping.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	pile	pile	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	logs	log	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	den	den	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Tsarévna	Tsarévna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	escaping	escape	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly out** | past | dragon |  |  | business |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent on business=Location |
| 2 | **use** | past | dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **pile** | to-infinitive | dragon *not said here* | logs of wood |  | front of the den |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent log=Theme in front=Destination |
| 4 | **prevent** | to-infinitive | dragon *not said here* | the Tsarévna |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **escape** | gerund | dragon *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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