---
title: Once there lived an old man, and he was such a sorry drunkard as wor… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once there lived an old man, and he was such a sorry drunkard as words cannot describe. Who acts: man, words. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 5, 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/pg62509/5/3/)

<!-- 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/) / 3

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 5, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once there lived an old man, and he was such a sorry drunkard as words cannot describe.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, words · **What happens:** live, be, not describe · **To what, where:** old man, sorry drunkard

<!-- .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 (man, words), 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:pg62509:5:4
# text = Once there lived an old man, and he was such a sorry drunkard as words cannot describe.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	advmod	_	_
2	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	14	det:predet	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	drunkard	drunkard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
17	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	describe	describe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a old man |  | there |  | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | man | such sorry drunkard |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **describe** | can | words | such sorry drunkard *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent drunkard=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 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/5/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/5/4/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/5/)