---
title: Then, one day, as they were sitting before the house under a very hi… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, one day, as they were sitting before the house under a very high tree, the father said, ‘I should like to try what each of you can do in this way.’ Who acts: brothers, father, I, each. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Four Clever Brothers, with its dependency tree and th
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/43/24/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / [The Four Clever Brothers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/43/) / 24

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Four Clever Brothers, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then, one day, as they were sitting before the house under a very high tree, the father said, ‘I should like to try what each of you can do in this way.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** brothers, father, I, each · **What happens:** sit, say, like, try, do · **To what, where:** one day, high tree, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Four Clever Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, father, I, each), 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:pg2591:43:24
# text = Then, one day, as they were sitting before the house under a very high tree, the father said, ‘I should like to try what each of you can do in this way.’
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	acl	_	_
10	before	before	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	under	under	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	34	obj	_	_
30	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	34	nsubj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nmod	_	_
33	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	ccomp	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	det	_	_
37	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | brothers *= brother* | one day *not said here* |  | a high tree | before the house |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent day=Theme before house=Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the father |  |  |  | then; day |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **like** | should | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **try** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **do** | can | each |  |  | this way |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/43/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/43/25/)
- ↑ back to [The Four Clever Brothers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/43/)