---
title: I am told that there is in the town a rich merchant and his daughter. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I am told that there is in the town a rich merchant and his daughter. Who acts: rich merchant. 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 129

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I am told that there is in the town a rich merchant and his daughter.

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**Who acts:** rich merchant · **What happens:** tell, be · **To what, where:** I, town · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (rich merchant), 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:pg62509:38:130
# text = I am told that there is in the town a rich merchant and his daughter.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **does** | present | a rich merchant and Katomá's daughter |  |  | the town; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in town=Location |

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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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