---
title: Meantime the old king was lingering on in daily hope of his son’s re… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Meantime the old king was lingering on in daily hope of his son’s return, till at last the second son said, ‘Father, I will go in search of the Water of Life.’ Who acts: Meantime, second son, I, return. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life, with its dependency tree a
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/49/15/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / [The Water of Life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/49/) / 15

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Water of Life, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Meantime the old king was lingering on in daily hope of his son’s return, till at last the second son said, ‘Father, I will go in search of the Water of Life.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Meantime, second son, I, return, son · **What happens:** linger on, say, go, hope, return, search · **To what, where:** daily hope, search, Water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Meantime, second son, I, return), 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:pg2591:49:15
# text = Meantime the old king was lingering on in daily hope of his son’s return, till at last the second son said, ‘Father, I will go in search of the Water of Life.’
1	Meantime	meantime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	lingering	linger	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	daily	daily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	till	till	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	amod	_	_
22	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	‘	‘	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	Father	Father	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	Water	Water	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	Life	Life	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **linger on** | past · progressive | Meantime |  |  | daily hope of king's son's return |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hope=Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the second son |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** | future | I |  |  | search of the Water of Life |  | ‘ Father | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in search=Location |
| 4 | **hope** |  | king's son's return |  |  |  |  |  | nom hope «feeling intransitive»: of=agent |
| 5 | **return** |  | king's son |  |  |  |  |  | nom return «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **search** |  |  | the Water of Life |  |  |  |  | nom search «act transitive»: of=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/49/14/)
- next →: [sentence 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/49/16/)
- ↑ back to [The Water of Life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/49/)