---
title: Then the youngest son descended the steps as before, and upon seeing… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the youngest son descended the steps as before, and upon seeing the large toad he talked with her, and told her what he desired. Who acts: youngest son, toad. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Dummling and the Three Feathers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Dummling and the Three Feathers, sentence 29

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Then the youngest son descended the steps as before, and upon seeing the large toad he talked with her, and told her what he desired.

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**Who acts:** youngest son, toad · **What happens:** descend, see, talk, tell, desire · **To what, where:** steps, large toad, flew · **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 (youngest son, toad), 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:pg11027:10:29
# text = Then the youngest son descended the steps as before, and upon seeing the large toad he talked with her, and told her what he desired.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	descended	descend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	before	before	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
12	upon	upon	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	27	obj	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	desired	desire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **descend** | past | the youngest son | the steps |  |  | then | before *property* | vn meander-47.7-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location step=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | gerund | toad *not said here* | the large toad |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer toad=Stimulus |
| 3 | **talk** | past | toad |  |  |  |  | with flew | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with she=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the youngest son *not said here* |  | flew |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **desire** | past | toad |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=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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