---
title: It may be long, it may be short, at last they came to the boundary,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It may be long, it may be short, at last they came to the boundary, and the doughty youth stopped, collected his army into the barrel, and went to the capital. Who acts: army, spurs, doughty youth. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 8, sentence 44

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It may be long, it may be short, at last they came to the boundary, and the doughty youth stopped, collected his army into the barrel, and went to the capital.

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**Who acts:** army, spurs, doughty youth · **What happens:** be, come, stop, collect, go · **To what, where:** boundary, army, barrel, capital

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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 (army, spurs, doughty youth), 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:pg62509:8:44
# text = It may be long, it may be short, at last they came to the boundary, and the doughty youth stopped, collected his army into the barrel, and went to the capital.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
9	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	boundary	boundary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	doughty	doughty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	collected	collect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	barrel	barrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | may | army |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | may | army |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | army *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **come** | past | spurs *= spur* |  |  | the boundary |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to boundary=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **stop** | past | the doughty youth |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **collect** | past |  | Tsarévna's army |  | the barrel |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent army=Material into barrel=Product |
| 7 | **go** | past | the doughty youth *not said here* |  |  | the capital |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to capital=Initial\_Location |

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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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