---
title: He had little enough to break or bite; and once, when there was a gr… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He had little enough to break or bite; and once, when there was a great famine in the land, he could not procure even his daily bread; and as he lay thinking in his bed one evening, rolling about for trouble, he sighed, and said to his wife, "What will become of us? Who acts: boy. A sentence of «Gri
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Hansel and Grethel, sentence 2

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He had little enough to break or bite; and once, when there was a great famine in the land, he could not procure even his daily bread; and as he lay thinking in his bed one evening, rolling about for trouble, he sighed, and said to his wife, "What will become of us?

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** have, break, bite, not be, lie, think · **To what, where:** little, bed, wife · **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 (boy), 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:pg11027:8:2
# text = He had little enough to break or bite; and once, when there was a great famine in the land, he could not procure even his daily bread; and as he lay thinking in his bed one evening, rolling about for trouble, he sighed, and said to his wife, "What will become of us?
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	obj	_	_
4	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	bite	bite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	famine	famine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	procure	procure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
27	even	even	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	daily	daily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	49	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
33	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	advcl	_	_
36	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	35	xcomp	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
40	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	41	nummod	_	_
41	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
43	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	36	advcl	_	_
44	about	about	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
45	for	for	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
48	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
49	sighed	sigh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	conj	_	_
53	to	to	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	55	nmod:poss	_	_
55	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	60	punct	_	_
57	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	60	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	60	nsubj	_	_
59	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	60	aux	_	_
60	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	conj	_	_
61	of	of	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
62	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	60	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | boy | little |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **break** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **bite** | infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **is** | could · past | boy |  |  |  |  | boy's daily bread *obl*; once, procure *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **lie** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | boy *not said here* |  |  | boy's bed | evening |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **roll about** | gerund | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for trouble; about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **sigh** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | boy *not said here* |  | boy's wife |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to wife=Recipient |
| 10 | **become** *in a quote* | future |  |  |  |  |  | of us | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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