---
title: The fisherman was half asleep, but the thought frightened him so muc… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The fisherman was half asleep, but the thought frightened him so much that he started and fell out of bed. Who acts: fisherman, thought. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Fisherman and His Wife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Fisherman and His Wife, sentence 106

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The fisherman was half asleep, but the thought frightened him so much that he started and fell out of bed.

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**Who acts:** fisherman, thought · **What happens:** be, frighten, start, fall · **To what, where:** fisherman, bed

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Fisherman and His Wife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fisherman, thought), 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:pg2591:11:106
# text = The fisherman was half asleep, but the thought frightened him so much that he started and fell out of bed.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	5	advmod	_	_
5	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	much	much	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the fisherman |  |  |  |  | asleep, half *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **frighten** | past | the thought | fisherman |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 3 | **start** | past | thought |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 4 | **fall** | past | thought *not said here* |  |  | bed |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme out bed=Location |

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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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