---
title: There was a man who had three sons, the youngest of whom was called… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a man who had three sons, the youngest of whom was called Dummling,[*] and was despised, mocked, and sneered at on every occasion. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Golden Goose, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Golden Goose, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was a man who had three sons, the youngest of whom was called Dummling,\[\*\] and was despised, mocked, and sneered at on every occasion.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** be, have, call, despise, mock, sneer · **To what, where:** three sons, occasion · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Golden Goose. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg2591:48:1
# text = There was a man who had three sons, the youngest of whom was called Dummling,[*] and was despised, mocked, and sneered at on every occasion.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	appos	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	obl	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	Dummling	Dummling	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	*	*	PUNCT	NFP	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	19	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	despised	despise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	mocked	mock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	sneered	sneer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	32	det	_	_
32	occasion	occasion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a man |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a man | three sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **call** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V» |
| 4 | **despise** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S» |
| 5 | **mock** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **sneer** | participle |  |  |  | every occasion |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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