---
title: When she opened her mouth to tell her mother what had happened to he… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: When she opened her mouth to tell her mother what had happened to her in the forest, a toad jumped out of her mouth at each word, so that every one fled away from her in horror. Who acts: girl, toad, one. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Three Little Men in the Wood, with it
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Three Little Men in the Wood, sentence 55

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When she opened her mouth to tell her mother what had happened to her in the forest, a toad jumped out of her mouth at each word, so that every one fled away from her in horror.

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**Who acts:** girl, toad, one · **What happens:** open, tell, happen, jump out, flee away · **To what, where:** mouth, mother, girl, forest, word, horror · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Three Little Men in the Wood. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl, toad, one), 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:pg11027:24:55
# text = When she opened her mouth to tell her mother what had happened to her in the forest, a toad jumped out of her mouth at each word, so that every one fled away from her in horror.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
8	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	det	_	_
28	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	34	mark	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	fixed	_	_
32	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	33	det	_	_
33	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
35	away	away	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	from	from	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | girl | girl's mouth |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mouth=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | girl *not said here* |  | girl's mother |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent mother=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  | girl | the forest |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in forest=Location |
| 4 | **jump out** | past | a toad | girl's mouth |  | each word |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent mouth=Theme at word=Trajectory |
| 5 | **flee away** | past | every one |  |  | horror |  | from girl; away *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from she=Initial\_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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