---
title: He took the oxen back to his neighbour, and he began to set up house… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He took the oxen back to his neighbour, and he began to set up house again, bought a wood, built a big house, and became twice as rich as his brother. Who acts: peasant. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 36, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He took the oxen back to his neighbour, and he began to set up house again, bought a wood, built a big house, and became twice as rich as his brother.

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**Who acts:** peasant · **What happens:** take back, begin, set up, buy, build, become · **To what, where:** oxen, neighbour, house, wood, big house

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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 (peasant), 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:pg62509:36:51
# text = He took the oxen back to his neighbour, and he began to set up house again, bought a wood, built a big house, and became twice as rich as his brother.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	again	again	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	built	build	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
30	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	32	advmod	_	_
31	as	as	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	_
33	as	as	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take back** | past | peasant | the oxen |  | peasant's neighbour |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent ox=Theme to neighbour=Destination |
| 2 | **begin** | past | peasant |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **set up** | to-infinitive | peasant *not said here* | house |  |  | again |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient house=Result |
| 4 | **buy** | past |  | a wood |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wood=Theme |
| 5 | **build** | past |  | a big house |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset house=Product |
| 6 | **become** | past | peasant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | rich *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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.

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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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