---
title: When he came to the gate the guards refused him admittance, and told… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: When he came to the gate the guards refused him admittance, and told him he was not the person expected, and so he had to return homeward. Who acts: kingdom, guards. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Water of Life, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he came to the gate the guards refused him admittance, and told him he was not the person expected, and so he had to return homeward.

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**Who acts:** kingdom, guards · **What happens:** come, refuse, tell, not be, expect, have · **To what, where:** gate, kingdom, person, homeward · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (kingdom, guards), 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:pg11027:17:69
# text = When he came to the gate the guards refused him admittance, and told him he was not the person expected, and so he had to return homeward.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	admittance	admittance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	ccomp	_	_
21	expected	expect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	homeward	homeward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | kingdom |  |  | the gate |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to gate=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **refuse** | past | the guards | kingdom |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | kingdom |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **not** **is a** | past | kingdom | the person |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **expect** | participle |  | the person *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **have** | past | kingdom |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **return** | to-infinitive | kingdom *not said here* | homeward |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent homeward=Theme |

<!-- .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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