---
title: In a certain city there was a merchant and his wife and their son, w… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In a certain city there was a merchant and his wife and their son, who was wise beyond his years; he was called Vasíli. Who acts: son. 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 78

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In a certain city there was a merchant and his wife and their son, who was wise beyond his years; he was called Vasíli.

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**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** be, call · **To what, where:** merchant, certain city, cock · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (son), 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:pg62509:6:78
# text = In a certain city there was a merchant and his wife and their son, who was wise beyond his years; he was called Vasíli.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	parataxis	_	_
26	Vasíli	Vasíli	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a merchant and cock's wife and wife's son |  | a certain city |  | cock's wife *conj*; wife's son *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | wife's son |  |  |  | year | wise *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **call** | past · passive |  | cock |  |  |  | Vasíli *xcomp* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |

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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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