---
title: Then the Cossack looked back steadily, and saw the hayrick burning,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the Cossack looked back steadily, and saw the hayrick burning, and in the middle of the flame a fair maiden standing, saying in a threatening voice, “Cossack, good man, save me from death!” Who acts: Cossack, hayrick, fair maiden standing. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, 
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 34, sentence 54

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Then the Cossack looked back steadily, and saw the hayrick burning, and in the middle of the flame a fair maiden standing, saying in a threatening voice, “Cossack, good man, save me from death!”

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**Who acts:** Cossack, hayrick, fair maiden standing · **What happens:** look back, see, burn, say, save · **To what, where:** hayrick, threatening voice, snake, middle · **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 (Cossack, hayrick, fair maiden standing), 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:pg62509:34:54
# text = Then the Cossack looked back steadily, and saw the hayrick burning, and in the middle of the flame a fair maiden standing, saying in a threatening voice, “Cossack, good man, save me from death!”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Cossack	cossack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	steadily	steadily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	hayrick	hayrick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	flame	flame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	standing	standing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	acl	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	threatening	threatening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	Cossack	cossack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
38	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
39	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	38	obj	_	_
40	from	from	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look back** | past | the Cossack |  |  |  | then | steadily *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past | the Cossack *not said here* | the hayrick |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hayrick=Stimulus |
| 3 | **burn** | gerund | the hayrick *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | a fair maiden standing *not said here* |  |  | a threatening voice and Cossack and good man |  |  | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in voice=Manner |
| 5 | **save** *in a quote* | infinitive | a fair maiden standing | snake |  | the middle of the flame |  | from death | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent i=Theme from death=Source |

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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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