---
title: Dummling thought of the little grey man, who could certainly help hi… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Dummling thought of the little grey man, who could certainly help him; so he went into the forest, and in the same place where he had felled the tree, he saw a man sitting, who had a very sorrowful face. Who acts: Dummling, little grey man, man. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Th
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Golden Goose, sentence 45

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Dummling thought of the little grey man, who could certainly help him; so he went into the forest, and in the same place where he had felled the tree, he saw a man sitting, who had a very sorrowful face.

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**Who acts:** Dummling, little grey man, man · **What happens:** think, help, go, fell, see, sit · **To what, where:** Dummling, forest, tree, man, same place, sorrowful face

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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 (Dummling, little grey man, man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg2591:1996`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2591:48:45
# text = Dummling thought of the little grey man, who could certainly help him; so he went into the forest, and in the same place where he had felled the tree, he saw a man sitting, who had a very sorrowful face.
1	Dummling	Dummling	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl:relcl	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
27	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	30	advmod	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	felled	fell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	acl:relcl	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	xcomp	_	_
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	41	nsubj	_	_
41	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	acl:relcl	_	_
42	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
43	very	very	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	sorrowful	sorrowful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Dummling |  |  |  |  | of the little grey man | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **help** | could | the little grey man |  | Dummling |  |  | certainly *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **go** | past | Dummling |  |  | the forest |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into forest=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **fell** | past · perfect | Dummling | the tree |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **see** | past | Dummling | a man |  | the same place |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **sit** | gerund | a man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **have** | past | a man | a sorrowful face |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent face=Patient |

<!-- .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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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