---
title: In the door there was a golden key, and when she turned it the door… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: In the door there was a golden key, and when she turned it the door sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning away very busily. Who acts: princess, door, old lady. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Briar Rose, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Briar Rose, sentence 14

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In the door there was a golden key, and when she turned it the door sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning away very busily.

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**Who acts:** princess, door, old lady · **What happens:** be, turn, spring, sit, spin away · **To what, where:** golden key, door, old lady

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Briar Rose. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (princess, door, old lady), 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:pg11027:18:14
# text = In the door there was a golden key, and when she turned it the door sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning away very busily.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	key	key	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
18	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
22	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
23	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
27	away	away	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	very	very	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	busily	busily	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a golden key |  | the door |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **turn** | past | princess | door |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **spring** | past | the door |  |  |  |  | open *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **sit** | past | princess *not said here* | a old lady |  | there |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location lady=Theme |
| 5 | **spin away** | gerund | a old lady *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away, busily *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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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