---
title: Before long they were all quite good friends, and the children began… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Before long they were all quite good friends, and the children began to play with their unlooked-for visitor, pulling his thick fur, or placing their feet on his back, or rolling him over and over. Who acts: children. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Snow-white and Rose-red, wit
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 32

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Before long they were all quite good friends, and the children began to play with their unlooked-for visitor, pulling his thick fur, or placing their feet on his back, or rolling him over and over.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** be, begin, play, pull, place, roll · **To what, where:** good friends, thick fur, feet, back, visitor

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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 (children), 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:pg11027:23:32
# text = Before long they were all quite good friends, and the children began to play with their unlooked-for visitor, pulling his thick fur, or placing their feet on his back, or rolling him over and over.
1	Before	before	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	all	all	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
18	unlooked	unlooked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	visitor	visitor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	pulling	pull	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	fur	fur	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	placing	place	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	conj	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	conj	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	_
39	over	over	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	over	over	ADV	RB	_	39	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | children *= child* | good friends |  |  |  | all *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the children |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **play** | to-infinitive | the children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **pull** | gerund | the children *not said here* | visitor's thick fur |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fur=Theme |
| 5 | **place** | gerund | the children *not said here* | children's feet |  | visitor's back |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent foot=Theme on back=Destination |
| 6 | **roll** | gerund | the children *not said here* | visitor |  |  |  | over *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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