---
title: When the time came for the war to begin, the willow-wren sent out sp… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When the time came for the war to begin, the willow-wren sent out spies to discover who was the enemy’s commander-in-chief. Who acts: time, willow wren. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Willow-wren and the Bear, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Willow-wren and the Bear, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the time came for the war to begin, the willow-wren sent out spies to discover who was the enemy’s commander-in-chief.

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**Who acts:** time, willow wren · **What happens:** come, begin, send out, discover, be · **To what, where:** spies, chief

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Willow-wren and the Bear. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (time, willow wren), 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:pg2591:12:20
# text = When the time came for the war to begin, the willow-wren sent out spies to discover who was the enemy’s commander-in-chief.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	willow	willow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	wren	wren	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	spies	spy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	commander	commander	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the time |  |  |  |  | for the war | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | to-infinitive | the time *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **send out** | participle | the willow wren | spies |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spy=Theme |
| 4 | **discover** | to-infinitive | the willow wren *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V PP.topic S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  | the enemy's chief |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «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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