---
title: When she wrote a letter to her father and mother she used to tie it… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When she wrote a letter to her father and mother she used to tie it to the neck of her little dog, which would run all the way home and bring an answer back. Who acts: Tsarévna, little dog. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 32, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 32, sentence 21

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When she wrote a letter to her father and mother she used to tie it to the neck of her little dog, which would run all the way home and bring an answer back.

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**Who acts:** Tsarévna, little dog · **What happens:** write, use, tie, run, bring back · **To what, where:** letter, father, way, answer

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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 (Tsarévna, little dog), 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:pg62509:32:21
# text = When she wrote a letter to her father and mother she used to tie it to the neck of her little dog, which would run all the way home and bring an answer back.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wrote	write	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	tie	tie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	parataxis	_	_
27	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	29	det:predet	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl:unmarked	_	_
30	home	home	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
33	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	back	back	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | past | Tsarévna | a letter | Tsarévna's father and mother |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent letter=Topic to father=Recipient |
| 2 | **use** | past | Tsarévna | Tsarévna's father and mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent father=Theme clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **tie** | to-infinitive | Tsarévna *not said here* | letter |  |  |  | to the neck of Tsarévna's little dog | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient to neck=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **run** | would | Tsarévna's little dog | all way |  |  |  | home *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **bring back** | infinitive | Tsarévna's little dog *not said here* | a answer |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent answer=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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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