---
title: They flung their comb behind them, and a dark, murky oak forest grew… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They flung their comb behind them, and a dark, murky oak forest grew up, so thick, no fly could ever have flown its way through. Who acts: claws, dark murky oak forest. 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 68

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They flung their comb behind them, and a dark, murky oak forest grew up, so thick, no fly could ever have flown its way through.

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**Who acts:** claws, dark murky oak forest · **What happens:** fling, grow up, fly · **To what, where:** comb, thick, fly

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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 (claws, dark murky oak forest), 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:pg62509:9:68
# text = They flung their comb behind them, and a dark, murky oak forest grew up, so thick, no fly could ever have flown its way through.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	comb	comb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
10	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	murky	murky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	22	det	_	_
22	fly	fly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	26	advmod	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux	_	_
26	flown	fly	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
27	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	through	through	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fling** | past | claws *= claw* | claws's comb |  |  |  | behind comb | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent comb=Theme behind they=Destination |
| 2 | **grow up** | past | a dark murky oak forest | thick |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fly** | could · perfect · passive |  | no fly |  |  | ever | fly's way *obj*; through *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme way=Destination |

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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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