---
title: “Oh, I am the Devil, and I am thanking you because when the old woma… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Oh, I am the Devil, and I am thanking you because when the old woman was stumbling along and barking at me uselessly, you put in a good word for me.” Who acts: Petrúsha, old woman, you. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/5/19/)

<!-- 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 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/5/) / 19

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Oh, I am the Devil, and I am thanking you because when the old woman was stumbling along and barking at me uselessly, you put in a good word for me.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Petrúsha, old woman, you · **What happens:** be, thank, stumble, bark, put · **To what, where:** Devil, you, good word

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Petrúsha, old woman, 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:pg62509:5:20
# text = “Oh, I am the Devil, and I am thanking you because when the old woman was stumbling along and barking at me uselessly, you put in a good word for me.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Devil	Devil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	thanking	thank	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	stumbling	stumble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
21	along	along	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	barking	bark	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	conj	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	_
26	uselessly	uselessly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	put	put	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | Petrúsha | the Devil |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **thank** *speech: thank* *in a quote* | present · progressive | Petrúsha |  | you |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 3 | **stumble** *in a quote* | past · progressive | the old woman |  |  |  |  | along *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **bark** *in a quote* | gerund | the old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at Petrúsha; uselessly *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Agent at i=Stimulus |
| 5 | **put** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  | a good word |  | for Petrúsha | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in word=Destination |

<!-- .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 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/5/18/)
- next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/5/20/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/5/)