---
title: While the little tailor was engaged in this exciting employment, he… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: While the little tailor was engaged in this exciting employment, he heard the king coming to inspect his treasure, so as quickly as possible he crept out of sight. Who acts: tailor, king. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Travels of Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/22/27/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimm's Fairy Stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/) / [The Travels of Tom Thumb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/22/) / 27

# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Travels of Tom Thumb, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While the little tailor was engaged in this exciting employment, he heard the king coming to inspect his treasure, so as quickly as possible he crept out of sight.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tailor, king · **What happens:** engage, hear, come, inspect, creep out, treasure · **To what, where:** little tailor, exciting employment, king, treasure, sight

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Travels of Tom Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tailor, king), 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:pg11027:22:27
# text = While the little tailor was engaged in this exciting employment, he heard the king coming to inspect his treasure, so as quickly as possible he crept out of sight.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	engaged	engage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	advcl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
9	exciting	exciting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	employment	employment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	inspect	inspect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	advcl	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
29	out	out	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **engage** | past · passive |  | the little tailor |  |  |  | in this exciting employment *goal* | vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP PP.goal»: subject=Theme in employment=Goal |
| 2 | **hear** | past | tailor | the king |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer king=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** | gerund | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **inspect** | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* | tailor's treasure |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent treasure=Theme |
| 5 | **creep out** | past | tailor | sight |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location sight=Theme |
| 6 | **treasure** |  | tailor |  |  |  |  |  | nom treasure «possession transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/22/26/)
- next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/22/28/)
- ↑ back to [The Travels of Tom Thumb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/22/)