---
title: They danced on till three o’clock in the morning, and then all their… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They danced on till three o’clock in the morning, and then all their shoes were worn out, so that they were obliged to leave off. Who acts: sisters. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, sentence 40

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They danced on till three o’clock in the morning, and then all their shoes were worn out, so that they were obliged to leave off.

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**Who acts:** sisters · **What happens:** dance, wear out, oblige, leave off · **To what, where:** three o’clock, shoes, sisters

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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 (sisters), 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:pg2591:10:40
# text = They danced on till three o’clock in the morning, and then all their shoes were worn out, so that they were obliged to leave off.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	till	till	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	o’clock	o'clock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	worn	wear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	24	mark	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	fixed	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	off	off	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dance** | past | sisters *= sister* |  |  | three o’clock | morning |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on o'clock=Location |
| 2 | **wear out** | past · passive |  | sisters's shoes |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **leave off** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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:** «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.

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