---
title: The merchant was frightened, fell on his knees and besought pardon. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The merchant was frightened, fell on his knees and besought pardon. Who acts: merchant. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 34, sentence 1

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The merchant was frightened, fell on his knees and besought pardon.

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**Who acts:** merchant · **What happens:** frighten, fall, beseech · **To what, where:** merchant, knees, pardon

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant), 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:pg62509:34:1
# text = The merchant was frightened, fell on his knees and besought pardon.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	besought	beseech	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	pardon	pardon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **frighten** | past · passive |  | the merchant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the merchant |  |  | merchant's knees |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 3 | **beseech** | past | the merchant *not said here* | pardon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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