---
title: Well, it may be long, it may be short, it may be near, it may be far… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, it may be long, it may be short, it may be near, it may be far, but he at last reached the fair princess, and he said he would accomplish her task. Who acts: bag, boy, princess. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/5/)

<!-- 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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/) / 5

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 8, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Well, it may be long, it may be short, it may be near, it may be far, but he at last reached the fair princess, and he said he would accomplish her task.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bag, boy, princess · **What happens:** be, reach, say, accomplish, task · **To what, where:** fair princess, task · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (bag, boy, princess), 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:pg62509:8:5
# text = Well, it may be long, it may be short, it may be near, it may be far, but he at last reached the fair princess, and he said he would accomplish her task.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
11	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
16	near	near	ADV	RB	_	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	nmod	_	_
27	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	accomplish	accomplish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	ccomp	_	_
38	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | may | bag |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | may | bag |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | may | bag |  |  |  |  | near *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | may | bag |  |  |  |  | far *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **reach** | past | boy | the fair princess |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent princess=Theme |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **accomplish** | would | boy | princess's task |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Eventuality |
| 8 | **task** |  | princess |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/4/)
- next →: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/6/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/)