---
title: But as soon as ever the old man dropped off to sleep both of them fe… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But as soon as ever the old man dropped off to sleep both of them fell down and were killed. Who acts: old man, both. 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 165

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But as soon as ever the old man dropped off to sleep both of them fell down and were killed.

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**Who acts:** old man, both · **What happens:** drop off, sleep, fall down, kill

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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 (old man, both), 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:pg62509:37:167
# text = But as soon as ever the old man dropped off to sleep both of them fell down and were killed.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	as	as	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	3	obl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	off	off	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
13	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	_
16	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
17	down	down	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drop off** | past | the old man |  |  |  | ever | soon *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fall down** | past | both of ages |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **kill** | past · passive | both of ages *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |

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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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