---
title: Bába Yagá had forbidden her to tell them anything about it; she was… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Bába Yagá had forbidden her to tell them anything about it; she was therefore much too frightened for a long time to tell them what was her trouble. Who acts: Bába. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 39, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 39, sentence 1

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Bába Yagá had forbidden her to tell them anything about it; she was therefore much too frightened for a long time to tell them what was her trouble.

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**Who acts:** Bába · **What happens:** forbid, tell, be · **To what, where:** her, anything, them, trouble · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Bába), 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:pg62509:39:1
# text = Bába Yagá had forbidden her to tell them anything about it; she was therefore much too frightened for a long time to tell them what was her trouble.
1	Bába	Bába	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	Yagá	Yagá	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	forbidden	forbid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	_
9	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	7	obj	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	too	too	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	frightened	frightened	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **forbid** | past · perfect | Bába | her *= she* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Bába *not said here* | anything | them *= they* |  |  | about it | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient anything=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | past | Bába |  |  |  | time | frightened *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Bába *not said here* |  | them *= they* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 5 | **is a** | past |  | Bába's trouble |  |  |  | what *nsubj*; Bába *nmod:poss* | tree rules |

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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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