---
title: But Danílo said, “If you know my wife you may cut off my head; and,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But Danílo said, “If you know my wife you may cut off my head; and, if you do not know her, you shall forfeit your own.” Who acts: Danílo, you. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/4/88/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / [Opening, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/4/) / 88

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 4, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But Danílo said, “If you know my wife you may cut off my head; and, if you do not know her, you shall forfeit your own.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Danílo, you · **What happens:** say, know, cut off, not know, forfeit · **To what, where:** wife, head, own · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Danílo, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:4:88
# text = But Danílo said, “If you know my wife you may cut off my head; and, if you do not know her, you shall forfeit your own.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Danílo	Danílo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
14	off	off	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	forfeit	forfeit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
30	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Danílo |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **know** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you | my wife |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer wife=Stimulus |
| 3 | **cut off** *in a quote* | may | you | my head |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **know** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present · do-support | you | wife |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer she=Stimulus |
| 5 | **forfeit** *in a quote* | shall | you | your own |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent own=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/4/87/)
- next →: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/4/89/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/4/)