---
title: When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long. Who acts: children. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Snow-white and Rose-red, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 45

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When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** come, see, wither · **To what, where:** dwarf

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Snow-white and Rose-red. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children), 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:pg2591:60:45
# text = When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
4	nearer	near	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dwarf	dwarf	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	withered	wither	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	amod	_	_
13	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
16	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl:unmarked	_	_
22	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | children *= child* | a dwarf |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dwarf=Stimulus |
| 3 | **wither** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

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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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