---
title: The old man bowed down to the earth and asked for the Tsar’s mercy. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man bowed down to the earth and asked for the Tsar’s mercy. Who acts: old man. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 6, sentence 16

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The old man bowed down to the earth and asked for the Tsar’s mercy.

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**Who acts:** old man · **What happens:** bow down, ask

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 6. 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:pg62509:6:16
# text = The old man bowed down to the earth and asked for the Tsar’s mercy.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Tsar	Tsar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bow down** | past | the old man |  |  |  |  | to the earth; down *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to earth=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the Tsar's mercy | vn inquire-37.1.2 «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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