---
title: As he was speaking, two great black cats sprang up to him with an im… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: As he was speaking, two great black cats sprang up to him with an immense jump and sat down one on each side, looking at him quite wildly with their fiery eyes. Who acts: cold, two great black cats. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, with its dependency
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, sentence 94

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As he was speaking, two great black cats sprang up to him with an immense jump and sat down one on each side, looking at him quite wildly with their fiery eyes.

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**Who acts:** cold, two great black cats · **What happens:** speak, spring up, sit down, look · **To what, where:** cold, one, side · **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 (cold, two great black cats), 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:pg11027:9:94
# text = As he was speaking, two great black cats sprang up to him with an immense jump and sat down one on each side, looking at him quite wildly with their fiery eyes.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	immense	immense	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	jump	jump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
20	down	down	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	obj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	det	_	_
24	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	wildly	wildly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	fiery	fiery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · progressive | cold |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **spring up** | past | two great black cats |  | cold |  |  | with a immense jump | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **sit down** | past | two great black cats *not said here* | one |  | each side |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **look** | gerund | two great black cats *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at cold; with cats's fiery eyes; wildly *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=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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