---
title: The man smiled and said, "How can that be done; you are far too smal… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: The man smiled and said, "How can that be done; you are far too small to lead the horse by the reins?" " Who acts: man, you. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/17/85/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimm's Fairy Stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/) / [The Water of Life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/17/) / 85

# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Water of Life, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The man smiled and said, "How can that be done; you are far too small to lead the horse by the reins?" "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, you · **What happens:** smile, say, do, be, lead · **To what, where:** that, horse · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (man, you), 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:pg11027:17:85
# text = The man smiled and said, "How can that be done; you are far too small to lead the horse by the reins?" "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	smiled	smile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
9	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
17	too	too	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	lead	lead	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	reins	rein	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **smile** | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | can · passive |  | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | far, small *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **lead** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | the horse |  |  |  | by the reins | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent horse=Theme by rein=Destination |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/17/84/)
- next →: [sentence 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/17/86/)
- ↑ back to [The Water of Life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/17/)