---
title: There was once upon a time a poor peasant called Crabb, who drove wi… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once upon a time a poor peasant called Crabb, who drove with two oxen a load of wood to the town, and sold it to a doctor for two talers. Who acts: poor peasant. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Doctor Knowall, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Doctor Knowall, sentence 1

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There was once upon a time a poor peasant called Crabb, who drove with two oxen a load of wood to the town, and sold it to a doctor for two talers.

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**Who acts:** poor peasant · **What happens:** be, call, drive, sell · **To what, where:** poor peasant, load, town, doctor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Doctor Knowall. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor peasant), 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:pg2591:52:1
# text = There was once upon a time a poor peasant called Crabb, who drove with two oxen a load of wood to the town, and sold it to a doctor for two talers.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
10	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
11	Crabb	Crabb	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	drove	drive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	load	load	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	sold	sell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	doctor	doctor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nummod	_	_
34	talers	taler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  |  |  | there | time | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **call** | participle |  | a poor peasant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **drive** | past | a poor peasant | a load of wood |  | the town |  | with two oxen | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent load=Theme to town=Trajectory |
| 4 | **sell** | past |  | load | a doctor |  |  | for two talers | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.asset»: agent=Agent it=Theme to doctor=Recipient for taler=Asset |

<!-- .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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