---
title: Then said they, "It is as we wished it to be, and it shall be our de… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Then said they, "It is as we wished it to be, and it shall be our dear child;" and because of its size, they called it Thumbling. Who acts: children, fire. 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 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then said they, "It is as we wished it to be, and it shall be our dear child;" and because of its size, they called it Thumbling.

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**Who acts:** children, fire · **What happens:** say, be, call, thumbl · **To what, where:** dear child, fire · **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 (children, fire), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg11027:17:81
# text = Then said they, "It is as we wished it to be, and it shall be our dear child;" and because of its size, they called it Thumbling.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
17	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
19	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
25	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	28	case	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	fixed	_	_
27	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	Thumbling	thumbl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | children *= child* |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | fire |  |  |  |  | wish *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | shall | fire | our dear child |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **call** | past | children *= child* | fire |  |  |  | because fire's size | tree rules |
| 5 | **thumbl** | gerund | children *= child* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «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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