---
title: Presently a fox met him: ‘What’s the matter, my friend?’ said he, ‘w… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Presently a fox met him: ‘What’s the matter, my friend?’ said he, ‘why do you hang down your head and look so lonely and woe-begone?’ Who acts: fox, matter, horse. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Fox and the Horse, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Fox and the Horse, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Presently a fox met him: ‘What’s the matter, my friend?’ said he, ‘why do you hang down your head and look so lonely and woe-begone?’

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**Who acts:** fox, matter, horse · **What happens:** meet, say, hang down, look · **To what, where:** horse, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Fox and the Horse. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox, matter, horse), 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:pg2591:45:4
# text = Presently a fox met him: ‘What’s the matter, my friend?’ said he, ‘why do you hang down your head and look so lonely and woe-begone?’
1	Presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	hang	hang	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
25	down	down	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	lonely	lonely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	woe	woe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	begone	begone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | a fox | horse |  |  |  | presently *property* | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the matter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **hang down** | present · do-support | horse | your head |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 4 | **look** | infinitive | horse *not said here* |  |  |  |  | lonely *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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