---
title: “Stand with your back to the water, and step backwards,” the old man… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Stand with your back to the water, and step backwards,” the old man told the boy. Who acts: old man. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 9, sentence 129

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“Stand with your back to the water, and step backwards,” the old man told the boy.

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**Who acts:** old man · **What happens:** stand, step, tell · **To what, where:** boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man), 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:pg62509:9:129
# text = “Stand with your back to the water, and step backwards,” the old man told the boy.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	step	step	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
12	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | with your back; to the water | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **step** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | backwards *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the old man |  | the boy |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient clause=Topic |

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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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