---
title: "How is it possible that Dummling, who is not at all wise, could con… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: "How is it possible that Dummling, who is not at all wise, could control the affairs of an important kingdom? Who acts: it, Dummling. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Dummling and the Three Feathers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Dummling and the Three Feathers, sentence 25

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"How is it possible that Dummling, who is not at all wise, could control the affairs of an important kingdom?

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**Who acts:** it, Dummling · **What happens:** be, not be, control · **To what, where:** all, affairs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Dummling and the Three Feathers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, Dummling), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg11027:10:25
# text = "How is it possible that Dummling, who is not at all wise, could control the affairs of an important kingdom?
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
7	Dummling	Dummling	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	obl	_	_
14	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	control	control	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	csubj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	affairs	affair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	important	important	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | it |  |  |  |  | possible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | Dummling |  |  | all |  | wise *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **control** *in a quote* | could | Dummling | the affairs of a important kingdom |  |  |  |  | vn enforce-63 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent affair=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:** «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 11027 (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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