---
title: When the barrel began to roll, the shepherd cried: ‘I am quite willi… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When the barrel began to roll, the shepherd cried: ‘I am quite willing to be mayor.’ Who acts: barrel, shepherd, I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Little Peasant, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Little Peasant, sentence 80

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When the barrel began to roll, the shepherd cried: ‘I am quite willing to be mayor.’

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**Who acts:** barrel, shepherd, I · **What happens:** begin, roll, cry, be · **To what, where:** mayor

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Little Peasant. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (barrel, shepherd, I), 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:pg2591:28:80
# text = When the barrel began to roll, the shepherd cried: ‘I am quite willing to be mayor.’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	barrel	barrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	roll	roll	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	willing	willing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	parataxis	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
19	mayor	mayor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the barrel |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **roll** | to-infinitive | the barrel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | the shepherd |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | willing *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | mayor |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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