---
title: There was once a little brother who took his Sister by the hand, and… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a little brother who took his Sister by the hand, and said, "Since our own dear mother's death we have not had one happy hour; our stepmother beats us every day, and, when we come near her, kicks us away with her foot. Who acts: little brother, we, stepmother, own dear mother. A sente
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Little Brother and Sister, sentence 1

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There was once a little brother who took his Sister by the hand, and said, "Since our own dear mother's death we have not had one happy hour; our stepmother beats us every day, and, when we come near her, kicks us away with her foot.

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**Who acts:** little brother, we, stepmother, own dear mother · **What happens:** be, take, say, not have, beat, come · **To what, where:** Sister, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Little Brother and Sister. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little brother, we, stepmother, own dear mother), 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:pg11027:7:1
# text = There was once a little brother who took his Sister by the hand, and said, "Since our own dear mother's death we have not had one happy hour; our stepmother beats us every day, and, when we come near her, kicks us away with her foot.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	Sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	iobj	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Since	since	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
20	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
21	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	's	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
26	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	ccomp	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
31	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
34	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
36	beats	beat	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
37	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	39	det	_	_
39	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	45	advmod	_	_
44	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
45	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	conj	_	_
46	near	near	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
49	kicks	kick	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	conj	_	_
50	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	49	obj	_	_
51	away	away	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
52	with	with	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	54	nmod:poss	_	_
54	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a little brother |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **take** | past | a little brother |  | brother's Sister |  |  | by the hand | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument sister=Destination |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **have** *in a quote* | present · perfect | we |  |  |  | since our own dear mother's death; hour |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **beat** *in a quote* | present | our stepmother | us |  |  | day |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location we=Theme |
| 6 | **come** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  |  |  | near stepmother | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme near she=Location |
| 7 | **kick away** *in a quote* | present | our stepmother *not said here* | us |  |  |  | with stepmother's foot; away *property* | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent we=Patient with foot=Instrument |
| 8 | **die** *in a quote* |  | our own dear mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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