---
title: It would be better for me to drink _vódka_ behind the counter.” — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It would be better for me to drink _vódka_ behind the counter.” Who acts: trouble, me. 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 39

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It would be better for me to drink \_vódka\_ behind the counter.”

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**Who acts:** trouble, me · **What happens:** be, drink · **To what, where:** vódka, counter

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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: who acts (trouble, me), 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:pg62509:4:39
# text = It would be better for me to drink _vódka_ behind the counter.”
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
4	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
9	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	vódka	vódka	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	8	punct	_	_
12	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	counter	counter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | trouble |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **drink** | to-infinitive | me | vódka |  | the counter |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vódka=Patient |

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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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