---
title: "Mercy on us!" said the maiden, "in winter there are no strawberries… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: "Mercy on us!" said the maiden, "in winter there are no strawberries growing; the ground is frozen, and the snow, too, has covered everything. Who acts: Mercy, strawberries. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Three Little Men in the Wood, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Three Little Men in the Wood, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Mercy on us!" said the maiden, "in winter there are no strawberries growing; the ground is frozen, and the snow, too, has covered everything.

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**Who acts:** Mercy, strawberries · **What happens:** say, be, grow, freeze, cover · **To what, where:** ground, everything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Three Little Men in the Wood. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mercy, strawberries), 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:pg11027:24:15
# text = "Mercy on us!" said the maiden, "in winter there are no strawberries growing; the ground is frozen, and the snow, too, has covered everything.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
15	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
17	strawberries	strawberry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
18	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	too	too	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	conj	_	_
33	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Mercy on us |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **does** *in a quote* | present | no strawberries |  |  | there | winter |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **grow** *in a quote* | gerund | no strawberries *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **freeze** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | the ground |  |  |  | the snow *obl* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result |
| 5 | **cover** *in a quote* | present · perfect |  | everything |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme everything=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.

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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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