---
title: I broke off a bulrush, carved myself a pipe out of it, and the pipe… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I broke off a bulrush, carved myself a pipe out of it, and the pipe began singing and speaking of itself.” Who acts: I, pipe. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 145

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I broke off a bulrush, carved myself a pipe out of it, and the pipe began singing and speaking of itself.”

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**Who acts:** I, pipe · **What happens:** break off, carve, begin, sing, speak · **To what, where:** bulrush, myself, pipe · **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 (I, pipe), 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:pg62509:5:147
# text = I broke off a bulrush, carved myself a pipe out of it, and the pipe began singing and speaking of itself.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	off	off	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bulrush	bulrush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	carved	carve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
8	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	pipe	pipe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	out	out	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	pipe	pipe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	xcomp	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	conj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break off** | past | I | a bulrush |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bulrush=Patient |
| 2 | **carve** | past |  | myself |  | pipe |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset myself=Beneficiary pipe=Product |
| 3 | **begin** | past | the pipe |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the pipe *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | the pipe *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of pipe | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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