---
title: “Mother, there have been strange men journeying past who wanted a dr… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Mother, there have been strange men journeying past who wanted a drink of water.” Who acts: Mother, strange men. 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 32

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“Mother, there have been strange men journeying past who wanted a drink of water.”

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**Who acts:** Mother, strange men · **What happens:** be, journey, want · **To what, where:** strange men, drink · **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 (Mother, strange men), 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:pg62509:9:32
# text = “Mother, there have been strange men journeying past who wanted a drink of water.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
7	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
9	journeying	journey	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	past	past	ADP	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	drink	drink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | participle | Mother | strange men |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **journey** *in a quote* | gerund | strange men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **want** *in a quote* | past |  | a drink of water |  |  |  | who *nsubj* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot drink=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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