---
title: He became afraid, soon, that the step-mother might not treat his chi… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He became afraid, soon, that the step-mother might not treat his children very well, and might even do them some great injury, so he took them away to a lonely castle which stood in the midst of a forest. Who acts: King, step mother, lonely castle. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grim
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Six Swans, sentence 13

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He became afraid, soon, that the step-mother might not treat his children very well, and might even do them some great injury, so he took them away to a lonely castle which stood in the midst of a forest.

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**Who acts:** King, step mother, lonely castle · **What happens:** become, not treat, do, take away, stand · **To what, where:** children, midst

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Six Swans. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, step mother, lonely castle), 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:pg11027:19:13
# text = He became afraid, soon, that the step-mother might not treat his children very well, and might even do them some great injury, so he took them away to a lonely castle which stood in the midst of a forest.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	treat	treat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	even	even	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	do	do	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	det	_	_
26	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	injury	injury	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	away	away	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	lonely	lonely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
38	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj	_	_
39	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	acl:relcl	_	_
40	in	in	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | King |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **treat** | might | the step mother |  | King's children |  |  | well *property* | vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent child=Recipient |
| 3 | **do** | might |  | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **take away** | past | King | children *= child* |  |  |  | to a lonely castle; away *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 5 | **stand** | past | a lonely castle |  |  | the midst of a forest |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in midst=Location |

<!-- .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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