---
title: So he stayed still, and said, “Sorrow, are you aiding me to sing?” — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So he stayed still, and said, “Sorrow, are you aiding me to sing?” Who acts: merchant, you. 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 171

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So he stayed still, and said, “Sorrow, are you aiding me to sing?”

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**Who acts:** merchant, you · **What happens:** stay, say, aid, sing · **To what, where:** Sorrow, merchant · **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 (merchant, you), 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:pg62509:35:171
# text = So he stayed still, and said, “Sorrow, are you aiding me to sing?”
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	stayed	stay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	still	still	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	aiding	aid	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stay** | past | merchant |  |  |  | still |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | merchant *not said here* | Sorrow |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **aid** *in a quote* | present · progressive | you | merchant |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=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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