---
title: If only the buttons had been moulded and the silken buttonholes sewn! — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: If only the buttons had been moulded and the silken buttonholes sewn! A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 4, sentence 36

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If only the buttons had been moulded and the silken buttonholes sewn!

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**What happens:** mould, sew · **To what, where:** buttons, silken buttonholes

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg62509:4:36
# text = If only the buttons had been moulded and the silken buttonholes sewn!
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
2	only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	buttons	button	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	moulded	mould	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	silken	silken	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	buttonholes	buttonhole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	sewn	sew	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mould** | past · perfect · passive |  | the buttons |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sew** | participle · passive |  | the silken buttonholes |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product |

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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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