---
title: They fought and fought, and the earth groaned at their blows, the fo… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They fought and fought, and the earth groaned at their blows, the forests bowed down and the rivers rose in waves. Who acts: hunters, earth, forests, rivers. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 33, sentence 79

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They fought and fought, and the earth groaned at their blows, the forests bowed down and the rivers rose in waves.

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**Who acts:** hunters, earth, forests, rivers · **What happens:** fight, groan, bow down, rise, blow · **To what, where:** waves

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hunters, earth, forests, rivers), 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:pg62509:33:79
# text = They fought and fought, and the earth groaned at their blows, the forests bowed down and the rivers rose in waves.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	groaned	groan	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	blows	blow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	down	down	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | past | hunters *= hunter* |  |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **fight** | past | hunters *= hunter* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **groan** | past | the earth |  |  |  |  | at hunters's blows | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Agent at blow=Stimulus |
| 4 | **bow down** | past | the forests |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **rise** | past | the rivers |  |  | waves |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in wave=Location |
| 6 | **blow** |  | hunters *= hunter* |  |  |  |  |  | nom blow «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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