---
title: The sister waited for many years, but he never came back, and she th… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The sister waited for many years, but he never came back, and she thought he, too, must have died. Who acts: sister, Prince, life. 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 96

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The sister waited for many years, but he never came back, and she thought he, too, must have died.

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**Who acts:** sister, Prince, life · **What happens:** wait, not come back, think, die · **To what, where:** Prince

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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 (sister, Prince, life), 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:pg62509:32:96
# text = The sister waited for many years, but he never came back, and she thought he, too, must have died.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	back	back	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	too	too	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
23	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wait** | past | the sister |  |  |  | year |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **come back** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | life | Prince |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot he=Theme |
| 4 | **die** | must · perfect | life *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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