---
title: Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and capered and sprang about, as merry as could be; till at last they danced out at the door, and away over the green. Who acts: wights. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Elves and the Shoemaker, with its depen
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Elves and the Shoemaker, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and capered and sprang about, as merry as could be; till at last they danced out at the door, and away over the green.

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**Who acts:** wights · **What happens:** dress, dance, caper, spring, dance out · **To what, where:** wights, twinkling, last

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Elves and the Shoemaker. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wights), 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:pg2591:37:22
# text = Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and capered and sprang about, as merry as could be; till at last they danced out at the door, and away over the green.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	dressed	dress	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	capered	caper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
18	about	about	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	parataxis	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	obl	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
31	out	out	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	away	away	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
38	over	over	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	green	green	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dress** | past | wights *= wight* | wights *= wight* |  | the twinkling of a eye | then | away *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient |
| 2 | **dance** | past | wights *= wight* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **caper** | past | wights *= wight* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **spring** | past | wights *= wight* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **dance out** | past | wights *= wight* |  |  | last |  | at the door | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at last=Location |

<!-- .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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