---
title: In the evening, when snow was falling, her mother would bid her bolt… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: In the evening, when snow was falling, her mother would bid her bolt the door, and then, sitting by the hearth, the good widow would read aloud to them from a big book while the little girls were spinning. Who acts: snow, mother, good widow, little girls. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jac
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 18

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In the evening, when snow was falling, her mother would bid her bolt the door, and then, sitting by the hearth, the good widow would read aloud to them from a big book while the little girls were spinning.

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**Who acts:** snow, mother, good widow, little girls · **What happens:** fall, bid, bolt, sit, read, spin · **To what, where:** White, door, roses, big book

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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 (snow, mother, good widow, little girls), 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:pg11027:23:18
# text = In the evening, when snow was falling, her mother would bid her bolt the door, and then, sitting by the hearth, the good widow would read aloud to them from a big book while the little girls were spinning.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	8	mark	_	_
6	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	bid	bid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
14	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	bolt	bolt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	hearth	hearth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	widow	widow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
32	aloud	aloud	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
35	from	from	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
39	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	44	mark	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	nsubj	_	_
43	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	aux	_	_
44	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past · progressive | snow |  |  |  | evening |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **bid** | would | mother's mother | White |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **bolt** | infinitive | mother's mother *not said here* | the door |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3-1 «NP V NP up»: agent=Agent door=Patient |
| 4 | **sit** | gerund | snow *not said here* |  |  |  | then | by the hearth | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by hearth=Location |
| 5 | **read** | would | the good widow |  | roses *= rose* | a big book |  | aloud *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from book=Source |
| 6 | **spin** | past · progressive | the little girls |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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