---
title: ‘How prettily that little thing turns round!’ said the princess, and… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘How prettily that little thing turns round!’ said the princess, and took the spindle and began to try and spin. Who acts: little thing. 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 22

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‘How prettily that little thing turns round!’ said the princess, and took the spindle and began to try and spin.

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**Who acts:** little thing · **What happens:** turn round, say, take, begin, try, spin · **To what, where:** princess, spindle · **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 (little thing), 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:pg2591:8:22
# text = ‘How prettily that little thing turns round!’ said the princess, and took the spindle and began to try and spin.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
3	prettily	prettily	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
4	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	turns	turn	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
8	round	round	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	spindle	spindle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn round** | present | that little thing |  |  |  |  | prettily, round *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the princess |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past |  | the spindle |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spindle=Theme |
| 4 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **try** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **spin** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme 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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