---
title: He ate the entire ox, and he drank the three casks of beer, croaked… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He ate the entire ox, and he drank the three casks of beer, croaked and said, “That was a small gift: still I cannot help it. Who acts: Ho, That. 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 107

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He ate the entire ox, and he drank the three casks of beer, croaked and said, “That was a small gift: still I cannot help it.

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**Who acts:** Ho, That · **What happens:** eat, drink, croak, say, be, not help · **To what, where:** entire ox, three casks, small gift, beer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Ho, That), 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:pg62509:34:107
# text = He ate the entire ox, and he drank the three casks of beer, croaked and said, “That was a small gift: still I cannot help it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	entire	entire	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	drank	drink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	casks	cask	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	beer	beer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	croaked	croak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
27	still	still	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past | Ho | the entire ox |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ox=Patient |
| 2 | **drink** | past | Ho | the three casks of beer |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cask=Patient |
| 3 | **croak** | past | Ho *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Ho *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | That | a small gift |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **help** *in a quote* | can | Ho | beer |  |  | still |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary |

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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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