---
title: grovel — school dictionary · trees and pragmatics
description: «grovel» in the school dictionary: To lie or crawl low on the ground, especially to show fear or respect. Every meaning for a pupil with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# grovel

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**Who acts:** dog, He, you · **What happens:** lie, crawl, show, beg, act, win · **To what, where:** ground, fear, favour, feet, grovelling

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«grovel» in the school dictionary: its 2 meanings for a pupil and its 3 examples, every sentence parsed by Mova itself — its syntax tree, a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies, and its pragmatics clause by clause. The word in the dictionary, with its sense in the lessons: [grovel in the school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/grovel.md).

## Meaning 1 {#m1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To lie or crawl low on the ground, especially to show fear or respect.

<!-- fold The tree, 14 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = dict:school:grovel:m1:1
# text = To lie or crawl low on the ground, especially to show fear or respect.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	lie	lie	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	crawl	crawl	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	show	show	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	respect	respect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **crawl** | infinitive |  |  |  | the ground |  | low *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on ground=Trajectory |
| 3 | **show** | to-infinitive |  | fear or respect |  |  |  | especially *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent fear=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

## Meaning 2 {#m2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To beg or act very humbly to win favour.

```conllu
# sent_id = dict:school:grovel:m2:1
# text = To beg or act very humbly to win favour.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	beg	beg	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	act	act	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	humbly	humbly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	win	win	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	favour	favour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **act** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | humbly *property* | vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **win** | to-infinitive |  | favour |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent favour=Eventuality |

## Example 1 {#x1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The dog grovelled at his master's feet.

```conllu
# sent_id = dict:school:grovel:x1:1
# text = The dog grovelled at his master's feet.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grovelled	grovell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grovell** | past | the dog |  |  | dog's master's feet |  |  | tree rules |

## Example 2 {#x2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He grovelled before the king for pardon.

```conllu
# sent_id = dict:school:grovel:x2:1
# text = He grovelled before the king for pardon.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	grovelled	grovell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	before	before	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	pardon	pardon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grovell** | past | He |  |  |  | before the king | for pardon | tree rules |

## Example 3 {#x3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Stop grovelling and stand up straight!

```conllu
# sent_id = dict:school:grovel:x3:1
# text = Stop grovelling and stand up straight!
1	Stop	stop	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	grovelling	grovelling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	stand	stand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | imperative | you *not said here* | grovelling |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality grovelling=Eventuality |
| 2 | **stand up** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | straight *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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**Text:** the school dictionary of Mova's schools (`world/data/dictionary-schools/`), written for Mova. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each meaning and example read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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