---
title: Once upon a time there lived an old man and his old wife, and they h… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived an old man and his old wife, and they had no children, and what on earth did they not do to get them! Who acts: man. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 7, sentence 2

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Once upon a time there lived an old man and his old wife, and they had no children, and what on earth did they not do to get them!

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** live, have, do, not do, get · **To what, where:** old man, children, earth, man

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg62509:7:2
# text = Once upon a time there lived an old man and his old wife, and they had no children, and what on earth did they not do to get them!
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	parataxis	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
25	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a old man and ZAMORÝSHEK's old wife |  | there | time | what *parataxis*; once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | man | no children |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 3 | **do** | past |  |  |  | earth |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **do** | present | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **get** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | man |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

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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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