---
title: The king had a son of eight years, who was once playing in the court… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The king had a son of eight years, who was once playing in the courtyard, and while he was playing, his golden ball fell into the cage. Who acts: king, son, golden ball. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Iron Hans, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Iron Hans, sentence 17

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The king had a son of eight years, who was once playing in the courtyard, and while he was playing, his golden ball fell into the cage.

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**Who acts:** king, son, golden ball · **What happens:** have, play, fall · **To what, where:** son, courtyard, cage

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Iron Hans. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, son, golden ball), 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:pg2591:59:17
# text = The king had a son of eight years, who was once playing in the courtyard, and while he was playing, his golden ball fell into the cage.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	13	advmod	_	_
13	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	acl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	cage	cage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the king | a son of eight years |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 2 | **play** | past · progressive | a son of eight years |  |  | the courtyard |  | once *property* | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **play** | past · progressive | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fall** | past | king's golden ball |  |  |  |  | into the cage *result* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into cage=Result |

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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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