---
title: But her father began to be very sorrowful, and to weep, saying, ‘Ala… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But her father began to be very sorrowful, and to weep, saying, ‘Alas, my dearest child! Who acts: father. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Lily and the Lion, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Lily and the Lion, sentence 16

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But her father began to be very sorrowful, and to weep, saying, ‘Alas, my dearest child!

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** begin, be, weep, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Lily and the Lion. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father), 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:pg2591:44:16
# text = But her father began to be very sorrowful, and to weep, saying, ‘Alas, my dearest child!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	sorrowful	sorrowful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	weep	weep	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	21	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	dearest	dear	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	amod	_	_
21	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | rose's father |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | rose's father *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sorrowful *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **weep** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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