---
title: They searched and searched for the Tsarévich, dragging the ponds. — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They searched and searched for the Tsarévich, dragging the ponds. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 6, 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/pg62509/6/53/)

<!-- 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 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/6/) / 53

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 6, sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They searched and searched for the Tsarévich, dragging the ponds.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** search, drag · **To what, where:** ponds

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (people), 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:pg62509:6:53
# text = They searched and searched for the Tsarévich, dragging the ponds.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Tsarévich	Tsarévich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	dragging	drag	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	ponds	pond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **search** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **search** | past | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the Tsarévich | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for tsarévich=Theme |
| 3 | **drag** | gerund | people *not said here* | the ponds |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pond=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 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/6/52/)
- next →: [sentence 54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/6/54/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/6/)