---
title: An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to him a great many years, but was now growing old and every day more and more unfit for work. Who acts: honest farmer, that. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Travelling Musicians, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Travelling Musicians, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to him a great many years, but was now growing old and every day more and more unfit for work.

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**Who acts:** honest farmer, that · **What happens:** have, be, grow · **To what, where:** ass, faithful servant, farmer

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Travelling Musicians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (honest farmer, that), 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:pg2591:5:1
# text = An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to him a great many years, but was now growing old and every day more and more unfit for work.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	honest	honest	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	faithful	faithful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
24	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
25	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
27	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	det	_	_
28	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
29	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	32	advmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	32	advmod	_	_
32	unfit	unfit	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | a honest farmer | a ass |  |  |  | once *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ass=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | past · perfect | that | a faithful servant | farmer |  | year |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **grow** | past · progressive | a honest farmer *not said here* |  |  |  | now | old *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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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