---
title: “I should then roll the apple on the saucer, and should speak words… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I should then roll the apple on the saucer, and should speak words which an old woman taught me in return for my giving her a loaf of white bread.” Who acts: sisters, old woman. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 117

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“I should then roll the apple on the saucer, and should speak words which an old woman taught me in return for my giving her a loaf of white bread.”

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**Who acts:** sisters, old woman · **What happens:** roll, speak, teach, give · **To what, where:** apple, saucer, words, sisters, return, loaf · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sisters, old woman), 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:pg62509:5:119
# text = “I should then roll the apple on the saucer, and should speak words which an old woman taught me in return for my giving her a loaf of white bread.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
5	roll	roll	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	apple	apple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	saucer	saucer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
15	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obj	_	_
17	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	taught	teach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	giving	give	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	acl	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	loaf	loaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **roll** *in a quote* | should | the sisters *= sister* | the apple |  | the saucer | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent apple=Theme on saucer=Trajectory |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | should | the sisters *= sister* *not said here* | words |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **teach** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past | a old woman | words | the sisters *= sister* | return |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient which=Topic |
| 4 | **give** *in a quote* | gerund | the sisters *= sister* | a loaf of white bread | woman |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient loaf=Theme |

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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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