---
title: He listened to them, and when he became aware of what they were sayi… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He listened to them, and when he became aware of what they were saying, he grew very thoughtful and sad. Who acts: country, frogs. 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 30

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He listened to them, and when he became aware of what they were saying, he grew very thoughtful and sad.

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**Who acts:** country, frogs · **What happens:** listen, become, say, grow · **To what, where:** frogs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, frogs), 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:pg2591:41:30
# text = He listened to them, and when he became aware of what they were saying, he grew very thoughtful and sad.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
10	aware	aware	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	obl	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	thoughtful	thoughtful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past | country |  | frogs *= frog* |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to they=Theme |
| 2 | **become** | past | country |  |  |  |  | aware *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | frogs *= frog* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **grow** | past | country |  |  |  |  | thoughtful *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «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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