---
title: So the rich man asked his brother: “Tell me, how did you become so r… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So the rich man asked his brother: “Tell me, how did you become so rich?” Who acts: rich man, brother. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 36, 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/pg62509/36/58/)

<!-- 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 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/36/) / 58

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 36, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the rich man asked his brother: “Tell me, how did you become so rich?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** rich man, brother · **What happens:** ask, tell, become · **To what, where:** brother, rich man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (rich man, brother), 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:pg62509:36:58
# text = So the rich man asked his brother: “Tell me, how did you become so rich?”
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
11	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the rich man |  | man's brother |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent brother=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | the rich man *= man* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 3 | **become** *in a quote* | past · do-support | man's brother *= brother* |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- 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 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/36/57/)
- next →: [sentence 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/36/59/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/36/)