---
title: Once upon a time there dwelt near a large wood a poor woodcutter, wi… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there dwelt near a large wood a poor woodcutter, with his wife and two children by his former marriage, a little boy called Hansel, and a girl named Grethel. Who acts: his. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Grethel, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Hansel and Grethel, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there dwelt near a large wood a poor woodcutter, with his wife and two children by his former marriage, a little boy called Hansel, and a girl named Grethel.

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**Who acts:** his · **What happens:** dwell, call, name, marry · **To what, where:** large wood, little boy, girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Grethel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (his), 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:pg11027:8:1
# text = Once upon a time there dwelt near a large wood a poor woodcutter, with his wife and two children by his former marriage, a little boy called Hansel, and a girl named Grethel.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	near	near	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	woodcutter	woodcutter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	marriage	marriage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
29	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
30	Hansel	Hansel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj:pass	_	_
35	named	name	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
36	Grethel	Grethel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dwell** | past |  |  |  | a large wood and a poor woodcutter; there | time | with his wife and two children; by his former marriage and a little boy; once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme near wood=Location |
| 2 | **call** | participle |  | a little boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **name** | participle · passive |  | a girl |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **marry** |  | his *= he* |  |  |  |  |  | nom marriage «state transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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