---
title: “Old man,” the master answered, “why should I not be heavy?—it is Go… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Old man,” the master answered, “why should I not be heavy?—it is God’s gift. Who acts: Old man, master. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 35, sentence 13

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“Old man,” the master answered, “why should I not be heavy?—it is God’s gift.

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**Who acts:** Old man, master · **What happens:** answer, not be, be · **To what, where:** gift · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Old man, master), 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:pg62509:35:13
# text = “Old man,” the master answered, “why should I not be heavy?—it is God’s gift.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
12	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
16	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: ask* | past | Old man |  |  |  |  | the master *nsubj* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | should | Old man *= man* |  |  |  |  | heavy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | master | God's gift |  |  |  | God *nmod:poss* | 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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