---
title: A poor woodman sat in his cottage one night, smoking his pipe by the… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A poor woodman sat in his cottage one night, smoking his pipe by the fireside, while his wife sat by his side spinning. Who acts: poor woodman, wife. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Tom Thumb, sentence 1

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A poor woodman sat in his cottage one night, smoking his pipe by the fireside, while his wife sat by his side spinning.

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**Who acts:** poor woodman, wife · **What happens:** sit, smoke, spin · **To what, where:** cottage, pipe

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Tom Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor woodman, wife), 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:pg2591:25:1
# text = A poor woodman sat in his cottage one night, smoking his pipe by the fireside, while his wife sat by his side spinning.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woodman	woodman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	smoking	smoke	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	pipe	pipe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fireside	fireside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | a poor woodman |  |  | woodman's cottage | night |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in cottage=Location |
| 2 | **smoke** | gerund | a poor woodman *not said here* | woodman's pipe |  |  |  | by the fireside | vn eat-39.1-1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent pipe=Source |
| 3 | **sit** | past | woodman's wife |  |  |  |  | by woodman's side | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by side=Location |
| 4 | **spin** | gerund | woodman's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme 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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