---
title: In the night, the old woman came creeping in, she held an axe in her… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In the night, the old woman came creeping in, she held an axe in her right hand, and felt with her left to see if anyone were lying at the outside, and then she grasped the axe with both hands, and cut her own child’s head off. Who acts: old woman, woman, anyone. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/30/8/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / [Sweetheart Roland](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/30/) / 8

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Sweetheart Roland, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the night, the old woman came creeping in, she held an axe in her right hand, and felt with her left to see if anyone were lying at the outside, and then she grasped the axe with both hands, and cut her own child’s head off.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, woman, anyone · **What happens:** come, creep in, hold, feel, see, lie · **To what, where:** axe, right hand, outside, head

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (old woman, woman, anyone), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2591:30:8
# text = In the night, the old woman came creeping in, she held an axe in her right hand, and felt with her left to see if anyone were lying at the outside, and then she grasped the axe with both hands, and cut her own child’s head off.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	creeping	creep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	xcomp	_	_
10	in	in	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	left	left	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
28	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	31	nsubj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	outside	outside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
37	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	39	advmod	_	_
38	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	grasped	grasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	_
42	with	with	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	44	det	_	_
44	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
48	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
49	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	’s	's	PART	POS	_	50	case	_	_
52	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obj	_	_
53	off	off	ADP	RP	_	47	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the old woman |  |  |  | night |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **creep in** | gerund | the old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hold** | past | woman | a axe |  | woman's right hand |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent axe=Theme in hand=Location |
| 4 | **feel** | past | the old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with woman's left | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive | the old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **lie** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | anyone |  |  | the outside |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at outside=Location |
| 7 | **grasp** | past | woman | the axe |  |  | then | with both hands | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent axe=Theme with hand=Instrument |
| 8 | **cut off** | past |  | woman's own child's head |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/30/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/30/9/)
- ↑ back to [Sweetheart Roland](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/30/)