---
title: He told, too, how he had heard from his grandfather that many, many… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He told, too, how he had heard from his grandfather that many, many princes had come, and had tried to break through the thicket, but had stuck fast and died. Who acts: palace, many many princes. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Briar Rose, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Briar Rose, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He told, too, how he had heard from his grandfather that many, many princes had come, and had tried to break through the thicket, but had stuck fast and died.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** palace, many many princes · **What happens:** tell, hear, come, try, break, stick · **To what, where:** thicket · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (palace, many many princes), 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:pg11027:18:25
# text = He told, too, how he had heard from his grandfather that many, many princes had come, and had tried to break through the thicket, but had stuck fast and died.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
14	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	through	through	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	thicket	thicket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	stuck	stick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
33	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | palace |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | past · perfect | palace |  |  |  |  | from palace's grandfather | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from grandfather=Source |
| 3 | **come** | past · perfect | many many princes |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **try** | past · perfect | palace *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **break** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | palace *not said here* |  |  | the thicket |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through thicket=Location |
| 6 | **stick** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **die** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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