---
title: The Devil wanted to hunt after them; but all at once the lake vanish… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The Devil wanted to hunt after them; but all at once the lake vanished, and there was no trace of the water. Who acts: Devil, lake, trace. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/9/164/)

<!-- 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 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/9/) / 164

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 9, sentence 164

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Devil wanted to hunt after them; but all at once the lake vanished, and there was no trace of the water.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Devil, lake, trace · **What happens:** want, hunt, vanish, be

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Devil, lake, trace), 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:pg62509:9:164
# text = The Devil wanted to hunt after them; but all at once the lake vanished, and there was no trace of the water.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Devil	Devil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	hunt	hunt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	after	after	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
10	all	all	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
11	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	vanished	vanish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	trace	trace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | the Devil |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **hunt** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Devil *not said here* |  |  |  | after meat |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **vanish** | past | the lake |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **be** | past | no trace of the water |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 163](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/9/163/)
- next →: [sentence 165](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/9/165/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/9/)