---
title: But they had scarcely touched the sexton when they were held fast, a… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But they had scarcely touched the sexton when they were held fast, and now there were seven of them running behind Dummling and the goose. Who acts: labourers, seven. 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 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But they had scarcely touched the sexton when they were held fast, and now there were seven of them running behind Dummling and the goose.

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**Who acts:** labourers, seven · **What happens:** touch, hold, be, run · **To what, where:** sexton, labourers, Dummling

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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 (labourers, seven), 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:pg2591:48:40
# text = But they had scarcely touched the sexton when they were held fast, and now there were seven of them running behind Dummling and the goose.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	touched	touch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sexton	sexton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	advcl	_	_
12	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
18	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	_
21	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
22	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Dummling	Dummling	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	goose	goose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **touch** | past · perfect | labourers *= labourer* | the sexton |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme sexton=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **hold** | past · passive |  | labourers *= labourer* |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **be** | past | seven of labourers |  |  | there | now |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **run** | gerund | seven of labourers *not said here* |  |  | Dummling and the goose |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind dummling=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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