---
title: There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids, an… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids, and loved them with all the love of a mother for her children. Who acts: old goat. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids, sentence 1

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There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids, and loved them with all the love of a mother for her children.

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**Who acts:** old goat · **What happens:** be, have, love · **To what, where:** seven little kids, kids, mother

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old goat), 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:pg2591:35:1
# text = There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids, and loved them with all the love of a mother for her children.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	kids	kid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  |  |  | there | time | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a old goat | seven little kids |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kid=Patient |
| 3 | **love** | past |  | kids *= kid* |  |  |  | with all love of a mother for goat's children | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 4 | **love** |  |  | a mother for goat's children |  |  |  |  | nom love «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

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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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