---
title: [11] The old man lived for three days without speaking, and could no… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: [11] The old man lived for three days without speaking, and could not unseal his tongue. Who acts: old man. 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 50

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\[11\] The old man lived for three days without speaking, and could not unseal his tongue.

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**Who acts:** old man · **What happens:** live, speak, not unseal · **To what, where:** 11, tongue · **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 (old man), 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:pg62509:5:51
# text = [11] The old man lived for three days without speaking, and could not unseal his tongue.
1	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	11	11	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	2	punct	_	_
4	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	unseal	unseal	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | the old man | 11 |  |  | day |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **unseal** | could |  | man's tongue |  |  |  |  | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tongue=Patient |

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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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