---
title: When the twelve princesses heard this they laughed heartily; and the… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When the twelve princesses heard this they laughed heartily; and the eldest said, ‘This fellow too might have done a wiser thing than lose his life in this way!’ Who acts: twelve princesses, princesses, eldest, wiser thing. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Twelve Dancing Princ
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/10/18/)

<!-- 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/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / [The Twelve Dancing Princesses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/10/) / 18

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the twelve princesses heard this they laughed heartily; and the eldest said, ‘This fellow too might have done a wiser thing than lose his life in this way!’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** twelve princesses, princesses, eldest, wiser thing · **What happens:** hear, laugh, say, do, lose · **To what, where:** this, fellow, life, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (twelve princesses, princesses, eldest, wiser thing), 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:pg2591:10:18
# text = When the twelve princesses heard this they laughed heartily; and the eldest said, ‘This fellow too might have done a wiser thing than lose his life in this way!’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obj	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
9	heartily	heartily	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	14	nsubj	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	too	too	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
22	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	ccomp	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	wiser	wise	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	amod	_	_
25	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
27	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	32	det	_	_
32	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the twelve princesses | this |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 2 | **laugh** | past | princesses *= princess* |  |  |  |  | heartily *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | participle | the eldest |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **do** | might · perfect · passive |  | this fellow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **lose** | infinitive | a wiser thing *not said here* | king's life |  | this way |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=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:** «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 2591 (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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/10/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/10/19/)
- ↑ back to [The Twelve Dancing Princesses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/10/)