---
title: It happened that as the horse was going a little too fast, and Tom w… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It happened that as the horse was going a little too fast, and Tom was calling out, ‘Gently! gently!’ two strangers came up. Who acts: It, horse, Tom, two strangers. 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 16

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It happened that as the horse was going a little too fast, and Tom was calling out, ‘Gently! gently!’ two strangers came up.

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**Who acts:** It, horse, Tom, two strangers · **What happens:** happen, go, call out, come up · **To what, where:** little

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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 (It, horse, Tom, two strangers), 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:pg2591:25:16
# text = It happened that as the horse was going a little too fast, and Tom was calling out, ‘Gently! gently!’ two strangers came up.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	too	too	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	calling	call	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
23	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
26	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
29	up	up	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past · progressive | the horse | a little |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **call out** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | Tom |  |  |  |  | gently *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **come up** | past | two strangers |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «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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