---
title: When the children looked around they saw they had been sleeping on t… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: When the children looked around they saw they had been sleeping on the edge of a precipice, and would surely have fallen over if they had gone forward two steps further in the darkness. Who acts: children. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Snow-white and Rose-red, with its depend
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the children looked around they saw they had been sleeping on the edge of a precipice, and would surely have fallen over if they had gone forward two steps further in the darkness.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** look around, see, sleep, fall over, go · **To what, where:** edge, darkness · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Snow-white and Rose-red. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children), 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:pg11027:23:13
# text = When the children looked around they saw they had been sleeping on the edge of a precipice, and would surely have fallen over if they had gone forward two steps further in the darkness.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	around	around	ADP	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	aux	_	_
11	sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	precipice	precipice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
23	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
24	over	over	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
29	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	further	further	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look around** | past | the children |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past | children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **sleep** | past · perfect · progressive | children *= child* |  |  | the edge of a precipice |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fall over** | would · perfect | the children *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over, surely *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **go** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | children *= child* |  |  | the darkness |  | forward, further *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in darkness=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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