---
title: There was once upon a time an old fox with nine tails, who believed… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once upon a time an old fox with nine tails, who believed that his wife was not faithful to him, and wished to put her to the test. Who acts: nine tails, wife. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, First Story, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, First Story, sentence 1

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There was once upon a time an old fox with nine tails, who believed that his wife was not faithful to him, and wished to put her to the test.

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**Who acts:** nine tails, wife · **What happens:** be, believe, not be, wish, put · **To what, where:** fox, wife · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, First Story. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nine tails, wife), 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:pg2591:54:1
# text = There was once upon a time an old fox with nine tails, who believed that his wife was not faithful to him, and wished to put her to the test.
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	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	nine	nine	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	faithful	faithful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	test	test	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	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 | **believe** | past | nine tails |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past | fox's wife |  | fox |  |  | faithful *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **wish** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **put** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  | wife |  |  | to the test | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent she=Goal |

<!-- .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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