---
title: Before long the sexton came by and saw his master, the parson, runni… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Before long the sexton came by and saw his master, the parson, running behind three girls. 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 36

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Before long the sexton came by and saw his master, the parson, running behind three girls.

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**What happens:** long, come by, see, run · **To what, where:** sexton, master

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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: 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:pg2591:48:36
# text = Before long the sexton came by and saw his master, the parson, running behind three girls.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	long	long	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	sexton	sexton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	parson	parson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
16	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **long** | gerund |  | the sexton |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **come by** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past |  | procession's master and the parson |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer master=Stimulus |
| 4 | **run** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | behind three girls | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind girl=Trajectory |

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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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