---
title: Scarcely had he spoken these words when he heard a croaking over his… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Scarcely had he spoken these words when he heard a croaking over his head, and looked up and saw seven ravens as black as coal flying round and round. Who acts: Scarcely, coal. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Seven Ravens, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Seven Ravens, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Scarcely had he spoken these words when he heard a croaking over his head, and looked up and saw seven ravens as black as coal flying round and round.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Scarcely, coal · **What happens:** have, speak, hear, look up, see, fly · **To what, where:** words, croaking, head, seven ravens · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Seven Ravens. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scarcely, coal), 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:pg2591:53:7
# text = Scarcely had he spoken these words when he heard a croaking over his head, and looked up and saw seven ravens as black as coal flying round and round.
1	Scarcely	Scarcely	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	xcomp	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	croaking	croaking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	over	over	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
21	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	ravens	raven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obl	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
27	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	acl	_	_
28	round	round	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	round	round	ADV	RB	_	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Scarcely | this words |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | participle | Scarcely |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **hear** | past | Scarcely | a croaking |  | Scarcely's head |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer croaking=Stimulus |
| 4 | **look up** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **see** | past |  | seven ravens |  |  |  | as black; as coal | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer raven=Stimulus as black=Attribute |
| 6 | **fly** | gerund | coal *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «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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