---
title: They knocked at the door, and when the wife opened it, and saw Hanse… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: They knocked at the door, and when the wife opened it, and saw Hansel and Grethel, she exclaimed, "You wicked children! why did you sleep so long in the wood? Who acts: pebbles, wife, stepmother, You. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Grethel, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Hansel and Grethel, sentence 34

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They knocked at the door, and when the wife opened it, and saw Hansel and Grethel, she exclaimed, "You wicked children! why did you sleep so long in the wood?

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**Who acts:** pebbles, wife, stepmother, You · **What happens:** knock, open, see, exclaim, child, sleep · **To what, where:** door, Hansel, wood · **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 (pebbles, wife, stepmother, You), 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:pg11027:8:34
# text = They knocked at the door, and when the wife opened it, and saw Hansel and Grethel, she exclaimed, "You wicked children! why did you sleep so long in the wood?
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	Hansel	Hansel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	Grethel	Grethel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
28	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	31	advmod	_	_
29	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **knock** | past | pebbles *= pebble* |  |  |  |  | at the door | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at door=Patient |
| 2 | **open** | past | the wife | door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | pebbles *= pebble* *not said here* | Hansel and Grethel |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hansel=Stimulus |
| 4 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | past | stepmother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **child** *in a quote* |  | You |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **sleep** *in a quote* | past · do-support | you |  |  | the wood |  | long *property* | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in wood=Location |

<!-- .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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