---
title: So he stopped and asked his wife: “Are you helping me; to sing with… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So he stopped and asked his wife: “Are you helping me; to sing with a thin voice?” Who acts: peasant, wife. 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 163

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So he stopped and asked his wife: “Are you helping me; to sing with a thin voice?”

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**Who acts:** peasant, wife · **What happens:** stop, ask, help, sing · **To what, where:** wife, peasant · **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 (peasant, wife), 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:pg62509:35:163
# text = So he stopped and asked his wife: “Are you helping me; to sing with a thin voice?”
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	helping	help	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | past | peasant |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | peasant *not said here* |  | peasant's wife |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient |
| 3 | **help** *in a quote* | present · progressive | peasant's wife *= wife* |  | peasant |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | peasant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with a thin voice | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with voice=Theme |

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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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