---
title: Just as he was going out of the iron door it struck twelve, and the… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Just as he was going out of the iron door it struck twelve, and the door fell so quickly upon him that it snapped off a piece of his heel. Who acts: door, clock. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Water of Life, sentence 40

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Just as he was going out of the iron door it struck twelve, and the door fell so quickly upon him that it snapped off a piece of his heel.

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**Who acts:** door, clock · **What happens:** go out, strike, fall, snap off · **To what, where:** iron door, twelve, piece

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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 (door, clock), 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:pg2591:49:40
# text = Just as he was going out of the iron door it struck twelve, and the door fell so quickly upon him that it snapped off a piece of his heel.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	iron	iron	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	snapped	snap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
26	off	off	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	heel	heel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go out** | past · progressive | door | the iron door |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **strike** | past | clock | twelve |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent twelve=Patient |
| 3 | **fall** | past | the door |  |  |  |  | upon well; quickly *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon he=Location |
| 4 | **snap off** | past | clock | a piece of door's heel |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location piece=Theme |

<!-- .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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