---
title: He was a dragon-slayer, but his principal employment was as ambassad… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He was a dragon-slayer, but his principal employment was as ambassador. Who acts: Vladímir, principal employment. 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 152

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He was a dragon-slayer, but his principal employment was as ambassador.

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**Who acts:** Vladímir, principal employment · **What happens:** be, employ · **To what, where:** dragon slayer

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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 (Vladímir, principal employment), 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:pg62509:39:152
# text = He was a dragon-slayer, but his principal employment was as ambassador.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	slayer	slayer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	principal	principal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	employment	employment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	ambassador	ambassador	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Vladímir | a dragon slayer but ambassador |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | Vladímir's principal employment |  |  |  |  | as ambassador | tree rules |
| 3 | **employ** |  | Vladímir |  |  |  |  |  | nom employment «state transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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