---
title: The elder brother laughed when he heard this speech, and thought to… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: The elder brother laughed when he heard this speech, and thought to himself, "Ah! my brother is such a simpleton that he cannot earn his own living. Who acts: elder brother, brother. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, sentence 12

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The elder brother laughed when he heard this speech, and thought to himself, "Ah! my brother is such a simpleton that he cannot earn his own living.

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**Who acts:** elder brother, brother · **What happens:** laugh, hear, think, be, not earn, live · **To what, where:** speech, brother, simpleton, own living · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (elder brother, brother), 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:pg11027:9:12
# text = The elder brother laughed when he heard this speech, and thought to himself, "Ah! my brother is such a simpleton that he cannot earn his own living.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	24	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	24	det:predet	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	simpleton	simpleton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	earn	earn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past | the elder brother |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | past | brother | this speech |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer speech=Stimulus |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | participle | the elder brother *not said here* |  | brother |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | my brother | such simpleton |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **earn** *in a quote* | can | brother | brother's own living |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent living=Theme |
| 6 | **live** *in a quote* |  | brother |  |  |  |  |  | nom living «cognition intransitive»: 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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