---
title: He had no need to ask for gold, he simply had to spit and there it w… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He had no need to ask for gold, he simply had to spit and there it was. Who acts: boy, need. 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 6

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He had no need to ask for gold, he simply had to spit and there it was.

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**Who acts:** boy, need · **What happens:** have, ask, spit, be · **To what, where:** need

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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 (boy, need), 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:pg62509:8:6
# text = He had no need to ask for gold, he simply had to spit and there it was.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	need	need	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	simply	simply	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	spit	spit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | boy | no need |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | no need *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for gold | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **have** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | simply *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **spit** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **be** | past | need |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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