---
title: There was once a porter in the world: he had a wife who was passiona… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a porter in the world: he had a wife who was passionately fond of stories, and she would only let people come and visit her who could tell stories. Who acts: porter, wife, people. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 39, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 39, sentence 73

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There was once a porter in the world: he had a wife who was passionately fond of stories, and she would only let people come and visit her who could tell stories.

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**Who acts:** porter, wife, people · **What happens:** be, have, let, come, visit, tell · **To what, where:** wife, people, stories · **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 (porter, wife, people), 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:pg62509:39:73
# text = There was once a porter in the world: he had a wife who was passionately fond of stories, and she would only let people come and visit her who could tell stories.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	passionately	passionately	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	only	only	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
26	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
27	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	visit	visit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
31	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
34	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a porter in the world |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | porter | a wife |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | a wife |  |  |  |  | of stories; fond, passionately *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **let** | would | wife | people |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **visit** | infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could |  | stories |  |  |  | wife *nmod:poss*; who *nsubj* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient |

<!-- .note -->
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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