---
title: When they were sitting at dinner and had eaten, the mother said: ‘El… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When they were sitting at dinner and had eaten, the mother said: ‘Elsie, go into the cellar and fetch some beer.’ Who acts: flies, mother, Elsie. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Clever Elsie, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Clever Elsie, sentence 7

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When they were sitting at dinner and had eaten, the mother said: ‘Elsie, go into the cellar and fetch some beer.’

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**Who acts:** flies, mother, Elsie · **What happens:** sit, eat, say, go, fetch · **To what, where:** dinner, cellar, beer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Clever Elsie. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (flies, mother, Elsie), 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:pg2591:32:7
# text = When they were sitting at dinner and had eaten, the mother said: ‘Elsie, go into the cellar and fetch some beer.’
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Elsie	Elsie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	cellar	cellar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	fetch	fetch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	beer	beer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | flies *= fly* |  |  | dinner |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at dinner=Location |
| 2 | **eat** | past · perfect | flies *= fly* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **go** | infinitive | Elsie |  |  | the cellar |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into cellar=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **fetch** | present | Elsie *not said here* | some beer |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beer=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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