---
title: Witches have red eyes, and cannot see very far; but they have a fine… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Witches have red eyes, and cannot see very far; but they have a fine sense of smelling, like wild beasts, so that they know when children approach them. Who acts: Witches, eyes, fine sense, children. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Grethel, with its dependency tree a
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Hansel and Grethel, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Witches have red eyes, and cannot see very far; but they have a fine sense of smelling, like wild beasts, so that they know when children approach them.

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**Who acts:** Witches, eyes, fine sense, children · **What happens:** have, not see, smell, know, approach · **To what, where:** red eyes, fine sense, wild beasts, eyes · **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 (Witches, eyes, fine sense, children), 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:pg11027:8:71
# text = Witches have red eyes, and cannot see very far; but they have a fine sense of smelling, like wild beasts, so that they know when children approach them.
1	Witches	witch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	smelling	smell	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	29	mark	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
30	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
31	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	approach	approach	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	ccomp	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | Witches | red eyes |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **see** | can | Witches *not said here* |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **have** | present | eyes *= eye* | a fine sense |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sense=Patient |
| 4 | **smell** | gerund | a fine sense *not said here* | wild beasts |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer beast=Stimulus |
| 5 | **know** | present | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **approach** | present | children | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

<!-- .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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