---
title: They were approaching a village, and saw a peasant girl driving a fl… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They were approaching a village, and saw a peasant girl driving a flock of geese. Who acts: words, peasant girl. 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 74

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They were approaching a village, and saw a peasant girl driving a flock of geese.

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**Who acts:** words, peasant girl · **What happens:** approach, see, drive · **To what, where:** village, peasant girl, flock

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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 (words, peasant girl), 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:pg62509:37:76
# text = They were approaching a village, and saw a peasant girl driving a flock of geese.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	peasant	peasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	driving	drive	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	geese	goose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | past · progressive | words *= word* | a village |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent village=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | words *= word* *not said here* | a peasant girl |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer girl=Stimulus |
| 3 | **drive** | gerund | a peasant girl *not said here* | a flock of geese |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme flock=Trajectory |

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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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