---
title: They plough all round it; but never touch the bottom: those who do n… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They plough all round it; but never touch the bottom: those who do not know whence came this trench call it a battlement. Who acts: fathoms, trench. 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 49

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They plough all round it; but never touch the bottom: those who do not know whence came this trench call it a battlement.

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**Who acts:** fathoms, trench · **What happens:** plough, not touch, not know, come, call · **To what, where:** bottom · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (fathoms, trench), 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:pg62509:32:49
# text = They plough all round it; but never touch the bottom: those who do not know whence came this trench call it a battlement.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	plough	plough	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	round	round	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	touch	touch	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
15	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
18	whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
19	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	trench	trench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	battlement	battlement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **plough** | present | fathoms *= fathom* |  |  |  |  | round trench | vn wipe\_instr-10.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **touch** | infinitive |  | the bottom |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme bottom=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **not** **know** | present · do-support |  |  |  |  |  | who *nsubj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come** | past |  |  |  |  |  | whence *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **call** | infinitive | this trench | bottom |  |  |  | a battlement *xcomp* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=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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