---
title: When the horseman came up, he proved to be a student, a merry fellow… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When the horseman came up, he proved to be a student, a merry fellow, who was journeying along on his nag, and singing as he went. Who acts: horseman, merry fellow. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Turnip, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Turnip, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the horseman came up, he proved to be a student, a merry fellow, who was journeying along on his nag, and singing as he went.

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**Who acts:** horseman, merry fellow · **What happens:** come up, prove, be, journey, sing, go · **To what, where:** student, nag

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Turnip. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horseman, merry fellow), 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:pg2591:39:23
# text = When the horseman came up, he proved to be a student, a merry fellow, who was journeying along on his nag, and singing as he went.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	horseman	horseman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	proved	prove	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	student	student	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	journeying	journey	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	acl	_	_
21	along	along	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	nag	nag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
28	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come up** | past | the horseman |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **prove** | past | horseman |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive | horseman *not said here* | a student |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **journey** | past · progressive | a merry fellow |  |  | horseman's nag |  | along *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on nag=Trajectory |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | horseman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **go** | past | horseman |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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