---
title: His hair covered almost all his face, his beard appeared like a piec… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: His hair covered almost all his face, his beard appeared like a piece of dirty cloth, his nails were claws, and his countenance was so covered with dirt that one might have grown cresses upon it if one had sown seed! Who acts: hair, nails. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Go
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Golden Goose, sentence 75

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His hair covered almost all his face, his beard appeared like a piece of dirty cloth, his nails were claws, and his countenance was so covered with dirt that one might have grown cresses upon it if one had sown seed!

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**Who acts:** hair, nails · **What happens:** cover, appear, be, grow, sow · **To what, where:** face, claws, countenance, one

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Golden Goose. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hair, nails), 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:pg11027:15:75
# text = His hair covered almost all his face, his beard appeared like a piece of dirty cloth, his nails were claws, and his countenance was so covered with dirt that one might have grown cresses upon it if one had sown seed!
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
3	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	7	det:predet	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	like	like	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	dirty	dirty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	nails	nail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	dirt	dirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
33	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
35	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux	_	_
36	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	conj	_	_
37	cresses	cress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obj	_	_
38	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obl	_	_
40	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
41	one	one	PRON	PRP	PronType=Ind	43	nsubj:pass	_	_
42	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
43	sown	sow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	36	advcl	_	_
44	seed	seed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cover** | participle | soldier's hair *not said here* | soldier's face |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme face=Destination |
| 2 | **appear** | past | soldier's hair |  |  |  |  | like a piece of dirty cloth and claws | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past | soldier's nails | claws |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **cover** | past · passive |  | soldier's countenance |  |  |  | with dirt | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with dirt=Theme |
| 5 | **grow** | might · perfect · passive |  | one |  |  |  | upon countenance | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP PP»: subject=Beneficiary cress=Product |
| 6 | **sow** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · passive |  | one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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