---
title: They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years o… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years old began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground. Who acts: hands, little grandson. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Old Man and His Grandson, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Old Man and His Grandson, sentence 7

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They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years old began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground.

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**Who acts:** hands, little grandson · **What happens:** sit, begin, gather · **To what, where:** bits

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Old Man and His Grandson. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hands, little grandson), 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:pg2591:27:7
# text = They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years old began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
4	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	grandson	grandson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
14	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	gather	gather	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	together	together	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	bits	bit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	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 · progressive | hands *= hand* |  |  |  |  | once, thus *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the little grandson |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **gather** | to-infinitive | the little grandson *not said here* | some bits of wood upon the ground |  |  |  | together *property* | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bit=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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