---
title: Once upon a time there was a very inquisitive King who spent all his… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there was a very inquisitive King who spent all his time eavesdropping at the window. Who acts: inquisitive King. 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 52

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Once upon a time there was a very inquisitive King who spent all his time eavesdropping at the window.

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**Who acts:** inquisitive King · **What happens:** be, spend, eavesdrop

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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 (inquisitive King), 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:pg62509:32:52
# text = Once upon a time there was a very inquisitive King who spent all his time eavesdropping at the window.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	inquisitive	inquisitive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	spent	spend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	eavesdropping	eavesdrop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  |  |  | there |  | once *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **spend** | past | a inquisitive King |  |  |  | time | who *nsubj* | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **eavesdrop** | gerund | a inquisitive King *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the window | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at window=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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