---
title: The boy placed himself by the brink of the well, and often saw a gol… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The boy placed himself by the brink of the well, and often saw a golden fish or a golden snake show itself therein, and took care that nothing fell in. Who acts: boy, that. 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 39

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The boy placed himself by the brink of the well, and often saw a golden fish or a golden snake show itself therein, and took care that nothing fell in.

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**Who acts:** boy, that · **What happens:** place, see, take, fall in · **To what, where:** boy, golden fish, care

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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 (boy, that), 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:pg2591:59:39
# text = The boy placed himself by the brink of the well, and often saw a golden fish or a golden snake show itself therein, and took care that nothing fell in.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	brink	brink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	often	often	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	show	show	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
23	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	22	nmod:unmarked	_	_
24	therein	therein	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
28	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
30	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	31	nsubj	_	_
31	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
32	in	in	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **place** | past | the boy | boy |  |  |  | by the brink of the well | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent himself=Theme by brink=Destination |
| 2 | **see** | past | the boy *not said here* | a golden fish  a golden snake show  well |  |  |  | often, therein *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer fish=Stimulus |
| 3 | **take** | past |  | care |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent care=Theme |
| 4 | **fall in** | past | that |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «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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