---
title: When it became known that the old fox was dead, suitors presented th… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When it became known that the old fox was dead, suitors presented themselves. Who acts: old fox, suitors. 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 4

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When it became known that the old fox was dead, suitors presented themselves.

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**Who acts:** old fox, suitors · **What happens:** know, be, present · **To what, where:** cooking, suitors · **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 (old fox, suitors), 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:pg2591:54:4
# text = When it became known that the old fox was dead, suitors presented themselves.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	suitors	suitor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	presented	present	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
14	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past · passive |  | cooking |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | the old fox |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **present** | past | suitors | suitors *= suitor* |  |  |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme |

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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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