---
title: Once there lived an old man and an old dame, and they only had one l… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once there lived an old man and an old dame, and they only had one little son, and you can’t imagine how they loved him. Who acts: merchants, you. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 36, sentence 100

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Once there lived an old man and an old dame, and they only had one little son, and you can’t imagine how they loved him.

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**Who acts:** merchants, you · **What happens:** live, have, not imagine, love · **To what, where:** old man, one little son, man

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchants, 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:pg62509:36:100
# text = Once there lived an old man and an old dame, and they only had one little son, and you can’t imagine how they loved him.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	advmod	_	_
2	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	dame	dame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	only	only	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
25	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a old man and a old dame |  | there |  | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | merchants *= merchant* | one little son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **imagine** | can | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **love** | past | merchants *= merchant* | man |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |

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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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