---
title: But scarcely had she touched it, before the fairy’s prophecy was ful… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But scarcely had she touched it, before the fairy’s prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded her, and she fell down lifeless on the ground. Who acts: princess, spindle. 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 23

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But scarcely had she touched it, before the fairy’s prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded her, and she fell down lifeless on the ground.

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**Who acts:** princess, spindle · **What happens:** have, touch, fulfil, wound, fall down · **To what, where:** spindle, prophecy, princess

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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 (princess, spindle), 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:pg2591:8:23
# text = But scarcely had she touched it, before the fairy’s prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded her, and she fell down lifeless on the ground.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	prophecy	prophecy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	fulfilled	fulfil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	spindle	spindle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	wounded	wound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
24	down	down	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	lifeless	lifeless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **touch** | past | princess | spindle |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **fulfil** | past · passive |  | the fairy's prophecy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **wound** | past | the spindle | princess |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer |
| 5 | **fall down** | past | princess |  |  |  |  | lifeless *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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