---
title: He stopped the wayfarer, took the letter, and held it for one minute… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He stopped the wayfarer, took the letter, and held it for one minute, and the letter was changed in all it said. Who acts: foundling, letter. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 8, sentence 118

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He stopped the wayfarer, took the letter, and held it for one minute, and the letter was changed in all it said.

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**Who acts:** foundling, letter · **What happens:** stop, take, hold, change, say · **To what, where:** wayfarer, letter, all · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (foundling, letter), 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:pg62509:8:118
# text = He stopped the wayfarer, took the letter, and held it for one minute, and the letter was changed in all it said.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	wayfarer	wayfarer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	changed	change	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	obl	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | past | foundling | the wayfarer |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector wayfarer=Eventuality |
| 2 | **take** | past | foundling *not said here* | the letter |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Theme |
| 3 | **hold** | past | foundling *not said here* | letter |  |  | minute |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **change** | past · passive |  | the letter |  | all |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | letter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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