---
title: "Very well, my son," answered the old man, and taking a big darning… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: "Very well, my son," answered the old man, and taking a big darning needle, he made a top to it of sealing wax, and gave it to Tom Thumb, saying: Who acts: son, top. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Travels of Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Travels of Tom Thumb, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Very well, my son," answered the old man, and taking a big darning needle, he made a top to it of sealing wax, and gave it to Tom Thumb, saying:

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**Who acts:** son, top · **What happens:** answer, take, make, seal, give, say · **To what, where:** old man, big darning needle, top, wax, Tom · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (son, top), 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:pg11027:22:3
# text = "Very well, my son," answered the old man, and taking a big darning needle, he made a top to it of sealing wax, and gave it to Tom Thumb, saying:
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
15	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	darning	darning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	_
27	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	sealing	seal	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	acl	_	_
29	wax	wax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	Thumb	Thumb	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
38	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | my son |  | the old man |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent man=Eventuality |
| 2 | **take** | gerund | son *not said here* | a big darning needle |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent needle=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | past | son | a top |  |  |  | to top | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent top=Product |
| 4 | **seal** | gerund | a top *not said here* | wax |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wax=Patient |
| 5 | **give** | past | my son *not said here* | wax | Tom |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Theme to tom=Recipient |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | my son *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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.

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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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