---
title: The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free hi… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast together. Who acts: girls. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Snow-white and Rose-red, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 68

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The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast together.

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**Who acts:** girls · **What happens:** come, hold, try, entangle · **To what, where:** creature, all

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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 (girls), 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:pg2591:60:68
# text = The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast together.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
23	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	entangled	entangle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
32	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	_
33	together	together	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the girls |  |  |  | time |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hold** | past | girls *= girl* | creature |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **try** | past | girls *= girl* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | free *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **entangle** | past · passive |  | all |  |  |  | fast, together *property* | vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .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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