---
title: It is so dangerous to walk on the ground in the dark," said he; "how… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: It is so dangerous to walk on the ground in the dark," said he; "how easily a neck or a leg is broken!" Who acts: passage, fellow. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Water of Life, sentence 116

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It is so dangerous to walk on the ground in the dark," said he; "how easily a neck or a leg is broken!"

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**Who acts:** passage, fellow · **What happens:** be, walk, say, break · **To what, where:** ground, neck · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (passage, fellow), 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:pg11027:17:116
# text = It is so dangerous to walk on the ground in the dark," said he; "how easily a neck or a leg is broken!"
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	dark	dark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
20	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | passage |  |  |  |  | dangerous *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **walk** | to-infinitive | passage *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  | in the dark | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on ground=Trajectory |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | fellow |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **break** | present · passive |  | a neck or a leg |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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:** «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 11027 (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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