---
title: He stood there at midnight like one who had done some evil; I did no… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He stood there at midnight like one who had done some evil; I did not know who it was, and cried three times, 'Speak, or be off!'" Who acts: father, I, evil. 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.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, sentence 41

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He stood there at midnight like one who had done some evil; I did not know who it was, and cried three times, 'Speak, or be off!'"

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**Who acts:** father, I, evil · **What happens:** stand, do, not know, be, cry, speak off · **To what, where:** one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (father, I, evil), 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:pg11027:9:41
# text = He stood there at midnight like one who had done some evil; I did not know who it was, and cried three times, 'Speak, or be off!'"
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	_
11	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
12	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	ccomp	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
24	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
32	off	off	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | father |  |  | there | midnight |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** | past · perfect · passive |  | one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | past | evil |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **speak off** *speech: other* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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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