---
title: I would rather remain a maiden; I would rather tie myself up with th… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I would rather remain a maiden; I would rather tie myself up with the Devil than go with him.” Who acts: I. 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 40

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I would rather remain a maiden; I would rather tie myself up with the Devil than go with him.”

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** remain, tie up, go · **To what, where:** maiden, myself

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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 (I), 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:pg62509:37:40
# text = I would rather remain a maiden; I would rather tie myself up with the Devil than go with him.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	tie	tie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Devil	Devil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
17	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remain** | would | I | a maiden |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme maiden=Attribute |
| 2 | **tie up** | would | I | myself |  |  |  | with the Devil | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent myself=Patient with devil=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **go** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with devil | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent with he=Beneficiary |

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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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