---
title: Now some ducks were sitting together quietly by a brook and taking t… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Now some ducks were sitting together quietly by a brook and taking their rest; and, whilst they were making their feathers smooth with their bills, they were having a confidential conversation together. Who acts: ducks. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The White Snake, with its de
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The White Snake, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now some ducks were sitting together quietly by a brook and taking their rest; and, whilst they were making their feathers smooth with their bills, they were having a confidential conversation together.

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**Who acts:** ducks · **What happens:** sit, take, make, have, bill · **To what, where:** rest, feathers, confidential conversation

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The White Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ducks), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg2591:1466`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2591:34:15
# text = Now some ducks were sitting together quietly by a brook and taking their rest; and, whilst they were making their feathers smooth with their bills, they were having a confidential conversation together.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	3	det	_	_
3	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	together	together	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	brook	brook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
24	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	bills	bill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	confidential	confidential	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	conversation	conversation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
35	together	together	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | some ducks |  |  |  | now | by a brook; quietly, together *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by brook=Location |
| 2 | **take** | gerund | some ducks *not said here* | ducks's rest |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rest=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | past · progressive | ducks *= duck* | ducks's feathers |  |  |  | with ducks's bills; smooth *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset feather=Product |
| 4 | **have** | past · progressive | ducks *= duck* | a confidential conversation |  |  |  | together *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conversation=Patient |
| 5 | **bill** |  | ducks *= duck* |  |  |  |  |  | nom bill «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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