---
title: But by good luck the dwarfs returned very early that evening; and wh… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: But by good luck the dwarfs returned very early that evening; and when they saw Snow-White lying on the ground, they thought what had happened, and soon found the poisoned comb. Who acts: dwarfs. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Little Snow White, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Little Snow White, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But by good luck the dwarfs returned very early that evening; and when they saw Snow-White lying on the ground, they thought what had happened, and soon found the poisoned comb.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dwarfs · **What happens:** return, see, lie, think, happen, find · **To what, where:** ground, poisoned comb · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Little Snow White. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dwarfs), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg11027:11:59
# text = But by good luck the dwarfs returned very early that evening; and when they saw Snow-White lying on the ground, they thought what had happened, and soon found the poisoned comb.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	by	by	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	dwarfs	dwarf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	early	early	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
10	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
17	Snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	White	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
20	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
27	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	33	advmod	_	_
33	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	parataxis	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	poisoned	poison	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	36	amod	_	_
36	comb	comb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | the dwarfs |  |  |  | evening | by good luck; early *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* |  |  |  |  | white *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **lie** | gerund | dwarfs *= dwarf* *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **find** | past |  | the poisoned comb |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent comb=Topic |
| 7 | **poison** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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