---
title: I have been playing ninepins," he replied, "and lost a couple of dol… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: I have been playing ninepins," he replied, "and lost a couple of dollars." " Who acts: I, King. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/9/129/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimm's Fairy Stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/) / [Oh, If I Could But Shiver!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/9/) / 129

# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, sentence 129

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I have been playing ninepins," he replied, "and lost a couple of dollars." "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, King · **What happens:** play, reply, lose · **To what, where:** ninepins, couple · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, King), 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:pg11027:9:129
# text = I have been playing ninepins," he replied, "and lost a couple of dollars." "
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux	_	_
4	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	ninepins	ninepin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	dollars	dollar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | present · perfect · progressive | I | ninepins |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent ninepin=Theme clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lose** | past | King *not said here* | a couple of dollars |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent couple=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/9/128/)
- next →: [sentence 130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/9/130/)
- ↑ back to [Oh, If I Could But Shiver!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/9/)