---
title: It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow were fall… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow were falling around, that the queen of a country many thousand miles off sat working at her window. Who acts: grief, broad flakes, queen. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Sweetheart Roland, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Sweetheart Roland, sentence 60

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It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow were falling around, that the queen of a country many thousand miles off sat working at her window.

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**Who acts:** grief, broad flakes, queen · **What happens:** be, fall around, sit, work · **To what, where:** middle

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Sweetheart Roland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grief, broad flakes, queen), 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:pg2591:30:60
# text = It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow were falling around, that the queen of a country many thousand miles off sat working at her window.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
8	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	15	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	broad	broad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	flakes	flake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	acl	_	_
16	around	around	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl:unmarked	_	_
27	off	off	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
29	working	work	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	28	xcomp	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | grief | the middle |  |  | winter |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fall around** | past · progressive | the broad flakes of snow |  |  |  |  | around *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **sit** | past | the queen of a country |  |  |  |  | off *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **work** | gerund | the queen of a country *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at queen's window | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at window=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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