---
title: Then the fair maiden turned into a snake, crept on to the pike, craw… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the fair maiden turned into a snake, crept on to the pike, crawled round the Cossack’s neck, coiled herself round his neck three times and put her tail between her mouth. Who acts: fair maiden. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 34, sentence 59

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Then the fair maiden turned into a snake, crept on to the pike, crawled round the Cossack’s neck, coiled herself round his neck three times and put her tail between her mouth.

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**Who acts:** fair maiden · **What happens:** turn, creep on, crawl, coil, put · **To what, where:** pike, neck, tail, mouth

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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 (fair maiden), 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:pg62509:34:59
# text = Then the fair maiden turned into a snake, crept on to the pike, crawled round the Cossack’s neck, coiled herself round his neck three times and put her tail between her mouth.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	on	on	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	pike	pike	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	crawled	crawl	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
17	round	round	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Cossack	cossack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’s	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	coiled	coil	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
24	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	obj	_	_
25	round	round	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
28	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl:unmarked	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
32	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	between	between	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | the fair maiden |  |  |  | then | into a snake *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into snake=Result |
| 2 | **creep on** | past | the fair maiden *not said here* |  | the pike |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to pike=Destination |
| 3 | **crawl** | participle |  | the pike *not said here* |  | the Cossack's neck |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme round neck=Trajectory |
| 4 | **coil** | past |  | pike |  | Cossack's neck | time |  | vn coil-9.6-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent herself=Theme round neck=Destination |
| 5 | **put** | infinitive |  | pike's tail |  | pike's mouth |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent tail=Theme between mouth=Destination |

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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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