---
title: Sometimes the poor brother had not a crumb of bread and the children… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes the poor brother had not a crumb of bread and the children (each of whom was smaller than the others) cried and begged for something to eat. Who acts: poor brother, each. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/35/124/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / [Opening, part 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/35/) / 124

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 35, sentence 124

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sometimes the poor brother had not a crumb of bread and the children (each of whom was smaller than the others) cried and begged for something to eat.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor brother, each · **What happens:** have, be, cry, beg, eat · **To what, where:** crumb

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor brother, each), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:35:124
# text = Sometimes the poor brother had not a crumb of bread and the children (each of whom was smaller than the others) cried and begged for something to eat.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	crumb	crumb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
14	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	parataxis	_	_
20	than	than	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	22	punct	_	_
24	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	26	obl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the poor brother | a crumb of bread and the children |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crumb=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | each |  |  |  |  | of the children; small *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  |  | than the others | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | past |  |  |  |  |  | for something | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for something=Topic |
| 5 | **eat** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/35/123/)
- next →: [sentence 125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/35/125/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/35/)