---
title: Did the little dwarves beg for mercy like proper little snivellers? — Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Did the little dwarves beg for mercy like proper little snivellers? Test 5 · ★ of lesson 1799 «Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans, part 50: Hans rings the bells, outwits the headless dwarves, then rides off through snow» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pr
---

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# Test 5 · ★ · Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans, part 50: Hans rings…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Did the little dwarves beg for mercy like proper little snivellers?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** little dwarves · **What happens:** beg

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 · ★ of lesson 1799 «Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans, part 50: Hans rings the bells, outwits the headless dwarves, then rides off through snow» of the books course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/1799-pg641-part50/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1799-pg641-part50:t5:1
# text = Did the little dwarves beg for mercy like proper little snivellers?
1	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	dwarves	dwarve	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	beg	beg	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	proper	proper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	snivellers	sniveller	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | present | the little dwarves |  |  |  |  | for mercy; like proper little snivellers | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for mercy=Topic |

<!-- .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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, they shouted for help

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1799-pg641-part50:t5:o1:1
# text = Yeah, they shouted for help
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	shouted	shout	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shout** *speech: express* | past | they |  |  |  |  | for help | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S\_INF»: agent=Agent for help=Recipient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, they fought back hard

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1799-pg641-part50:t5:o2:1
# text = Nah, they fought back hard
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight back** | past | they |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, they begged him to spare their lives

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1799-pg641-part50:t5:o3:1
# text = Yeah, they begged him to spare their lives
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | they |  | him *= he* |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **spare** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | they *not said here* | their lives |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent life=Asset |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, they laughed

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1799-pg641-part50:t5:o4:1
# text = Nah, they laughed
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past | they |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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- ← previous: [Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans,…, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1799-pg641-part50/t4/)
- next →: [Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans,…, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1799-pg641-part50/t6/)
- ↑ back to [Grimm's Household Tales, Clever Hans, part 50: Hans rings the bells, outwits the headless dwarves, then rides off through snow](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1799-pg641-part50/)