---
title: They did not let it want for food, but the child did not grow taller… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: They did not let it want for food, but the child did not grow taller, but remained as it had been at the first, nevertheless it looked sensibly out of its eyes, and soon showed itself to be a wise and nimble creature, for everything it did turned out well. Who acts: children, fire, child. A sentence
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Water of Life, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They did not let it want for food, but the child did not grow taller, but remained as it had been at the first, nevertheless it looked sensibly out of its eyes, and soon showed itself to be a wise and nimble creature, for everything it did turned out well.

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**Who acts:** children, fire, child · **What happens:** not let, want, not grow, remain, be, look · **To what, where:** fire, wise creature · **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, child), 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:pg11027:17:82
# text = They did not let it want for food, but the child did not grow taller, but remained as it had been at the first, nevertheless it looked sensibly out of its eyes, and soon showed itself to be a wise and nimble creature, for everything it did turned out well.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
16	taller	tall	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	remained	remain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
23	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	cop	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	nevertheless	nevertheless	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
31	sensibly	sensibly	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	out	out	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	39	advmod	_	_
39	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
40	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	39	obj	_	_
41	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
42	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	cop	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
44	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	nimble	nimble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	conj	_	_
47	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
49	for	for	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	47	conj	_	_
51	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
52	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	aux	_	_
53	turned	turn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	50	acl:relcl	_	_
54	out	out	ADP	RP	_	53	compound:prt	_	_
55	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	53	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **let** | past · do-support | children *= child* | fire |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **want** | infinitive | fire *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for food | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **not** **grow** | past · do-support | the child |  |  |  |  | tall *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **remain** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past · perfect | fire |  |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **look** | past | fire |  |  |  |  | out fire's eyes; nevertheless, sensibly *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent out eye=Theme |
| 7 | **show** | past | fire *not said here* | fire |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent itself=Recipient |
| 8 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a wise creature |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **turn out** | past · do-support | fire |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP 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:** «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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