---
title: “Oh, very well, I will start helping the poor: possibly they may pra… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Oh, very well, I will start helping the poor: possibly they may pray for my soul.” Who acts: fool, silver. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 37, sentence 16

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“Oh, very well, I will start helping the poor: possibly they may pray for my soul.”

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**Who acts:** fool, silver · **What happens:** start, help, pray · **To what, where:** poor

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fool, silver), 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:pg62509:37:16
# text = “Oh, very well, I will start helping the poor: possibly they may pray for my soul.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	helping	help	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	xcomp	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
14	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	pray	pray	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** *in a quote* | future | what fool *= fool* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **help** *in a quote* | gerund | what fool *= fool* *not said here* | the poor |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poor=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **pray** *in a quote* | may | silver |  |  |  |  | for my soul; possibly *property* | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for soul=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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