---
title: In a country, in a kingdom far away, once upon a time there lived a… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In a country, in a kingdom far away, once upon a time there lived a merchant, Mark the Rich; and, what with all his estates and revenues, you couldn’t count them. Who acts: you. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 8, sentence 86

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In a country, in a kingdom far away, once upon a time there lived a merchant, Mark the Rich; and, what with all his estates and revenues, you couldn’t count them.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** live, not count · **To what, where:** merchant, country, revenues

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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 (you), 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:pg62509:8:86
# text = In a country, in a kingdom far away, once upon a time there lived a merchant, Mark the Rich; and, what with all his estates and revenues, you couldn’t count them.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
8	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	_
9	away	away	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
11	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	16	advmod	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
15	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
16	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	Mark	Mark	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Rich	Rich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	parataxis	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	30	det:predet	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	estates	estate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	revenues	revenue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
37	count	count	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	parataxis	_	_
38	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a merchant |  | a country and a kingdom; there | time | what with MARK's estates and revenues *parataxis*; once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme merchant=Location |
| 2 | **not** **count** | could | you | revenues *= revenue* |  |  |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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