---
title: He sought a path out of the forest but could not find one, and prese… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He sought a path out of the forest but could not find one, and presently he saw an old woman, with a nodding head, who came up to him. " Who acts: King, nodding head. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Six Swans, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Six Swans, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He sought a path out of the forest but could not find one, and presently he saw an old woman, with a nodding head, who came up to him. "

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**Who acts:** King, nodding head · **What happens:** seek, not find, see, come up · **To what, where:** path, forest, one, old woman, King

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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, nodding head), 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:pg11027:19:3
# text = He sought a path out of the forest but could not find one, and presently he saw an old woman, with a nodding head, who came up to him. "
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	out	out	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	nodding	nodding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
29	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
30	up	up	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | past | King | a path |  | the forest |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent path=Theme out forest=Location |
| 2 | **not** **find** | could | King *not said here* | one |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Topic |
| 3 | **see** | past | King | a old woman |  |  |  | with a nodding head; presently *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer woman=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come up** | past | a nodding head |  | King |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to he=Initial\_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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