---
title: On the way he passed by a marsh, in which a number of frogs were sit… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: On the way he passed by a marsh, in which a number of frogs were sitting croaking. Who acts: country, number. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Three Languages, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Three Languages, sentence 29

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On the way he passed by a marsh, in which a number of frogs were sitting croaking.

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**Who acts:** country, number · **What happens:** pass, sit, croak · **To what, where:** way

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Three Languages. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (country, number), 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:pg2591:41:29
# text = On the way he passed by a marsh, in which a number of frogs were sitting croaking.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	marsh	marsh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	obl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
18	croaking	croak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past | country |  |  | the way |  | by a marsh | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on way=Location |
| 2 | **sit** | past · progressive | a number of frogs |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in which=Location |
| 3 | **croak** | gerund | a number of frogs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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