---
title: Next day the old man set the twelve maidens in a row before the boy,… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Next day the old man set the twelve maidens in a row before the boy, and commanded him to choose one of them. 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 156

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Next day the old man set the twelve maidens in a row before the boy, and commanded him to choose one of them.

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**Who acts:** old man · **What happens:** set, command, choose · **To what, where:** twelve maidens, row, boy, one · **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:pg62509:9:156
# text = Next day the old man set the twelve maidens in a row before the boy, and commanded him to choose one of them.
1	Next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	row	row	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
13	before	before	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
22	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | past | the old man | the twelve maidens |  | a row | before the boy; day |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent maiden=Theme in row=Destination |
| 2 | **command** | past | the old man *not said here* | boy |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **choose** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the old man *not said here* | one of men |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=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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