---
title: He stood on the shore and considered what he should do, when suddenl… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He stood on the shore and considered what he should do, when suddenly he saw three fishes come swimming towards him, and they were the very fishes whose lives he had saved. Who acts: youth, three fishes, fishes. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The White Snake, with its dependency
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/34/42/)

<!-- 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/) / [The White Snake](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/34/) / 42

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The White Snake, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He stood on the shore and considered what he should do, when suddenly he saw three fishes come swimming towards him, and they were the very fishes whose lives he had saved.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** youth, three fishes, fishes · **What happens:** stand, consider, do, see, come, swim · **To what, where:** shore, lives

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (youth, three fishes, fishes), 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:pg2591:34:42
# text = He stood on the shore and considered what he should do, when suddenly he saw three fishes come swimming towards him, and they were the very fishes whose lives he had saved.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	considered	consider	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	obj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
20	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	_
21	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	very	very	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	fishes	fish	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
30	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	saved	save	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | youth |  |  | the shore |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on shore=Location |
| 2 | **consider** | past | youth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | should | youth |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **see** | past | youth |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **come** | present | three fishes |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **swim** | gerund | three fishes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | towards youth | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards he=Destination |
| 7 | **is** | past | fishes *= fish* |  |  |  |  | fish *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **save** | past · perfect | youth | lives *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=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.

<!-- 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 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/34/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/34/43/)
- ↑ back to [The White Snake](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/34/)