---
title: So for a long while they lived in the wood and used to catch rabbits… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So for a long while they lived in the wood and used to catch rabbits, foxes and bears for their food. Who acts: cows. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 38, sentence 127

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So for a long while they lived in the wood and used to catch rabbits, foxes and bears for their food.

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**Who acts:** cows · **What happens:** live, use, catch · **To what, where:** wood, rabbits

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cows), 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:pg62509:38:128
# text = So for a long while they lived in the wood and used to catch rabbits, foxes and bears for their food.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	for	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	foxes	fox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	bears	bear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | cows *= cow* |  |  | the wood |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in wood=Location |
| 2 | **use** | past | cows *= cow* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **catch** | to-infinitive | cows *= cow* *not said here* | rabbits and foxes and bears |  |  |  | for cows's food | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent rabbit=Theme for food=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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