---
title: ‘Spinning,’ said the old lady, and nodded her head, humming a tune,… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Spinning,’ said the old lady, and nodded her head, humming a tune, while buzz! went the wheel. Who acts: old lady, buzz. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Briar Rose, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Briar Rose, sentence 21

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‘Spinning,’ said the old lady, and nodded her head, humming a tune, while buzz! went the wheel.

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**Who acts:** old lady, buzz · **What happens:** spin, say, nod, hum, go · **To what, where:** head, tune, wheel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Briar Rose. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old lady, buzz), 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:pg2591:8:21
# text = ‘Spinning,’ said the old lady, and nodded her head, humming a tune, while buzz! went the wheel.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	nodded	nod	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	humming	hum	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	buzz	buzz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
22	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	wheel	wheel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spin** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old lady |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **nod** | past |  | lady's head |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 4 | **hum** | gerund |  | a tune |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tune=Topic |
| 5 | **go** | past | buzz | the wheel |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wheel=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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