---
title: When old Mr Fox was dead, the wolf came as a suitor, and knocked at… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When old Mr Fox was dead, the wolf came as a suitor, and knocked at the door, and the cat who was servant to Mrs Fox, opened it for him. Who acts: old Mr Fox, dead, cat. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Second Story, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Second Story, sentence 1

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When old Mr Fox was dead, the wolf came as a suitor, and knocked at the door, and the cat who was servant to Mrs Fox, opened it for him.

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**Who acts:** old Mr Fox, dead, cat · **What happens:** be, come, knock, open · **To what, where:** servant, Mrs, wolf

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Second 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 Mr Fox, dead, cat), 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:pg2591:55:1
# text = When old Mr Fox was dead, the wolf came as a suitor, and knocked at the door, and the cat who was servant to Mrs Fox, opened it for him.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	Mr	Mr	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	suitor	suitor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Mrs	Mrs	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	Fox	Fox	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | old Mr Fox |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | dead |  |  |  |  | as a suitor | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **knock** | past |  |  |  |  |  | at the door | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at door=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the cat and servant | servant | Mrs |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **open** | past |  | wolf |  |  |  | for Fox | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=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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