---
title: “Why did you not think of it sooner?” the rich man replied. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why did you not think of it sooner?” the rich man replied. Who acts: 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/35/32/)

<!-- 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/) / 32

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 35, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Why did you not think of it sooner?” the rich man replied.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** not think, reply · **To what, where:** rich man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (you), 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:pg62509:35:32
# text = “Why did you not think of it sooner?” the rich man replied.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
15	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past · do-support | you |  |  |  |  | of festival; soon *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: ask* | participle |  | the rich man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «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 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/35/31/)
- next →: [sentence 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/35/33/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/35/)