---
title: ‘Nothing better,’ said this false bride, ‘than that she should be th… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Nothing better,’ said this false bride, ‘than that she should be thrown into a cask stuck round with sharp nails, and that two white horses should be put to it, and should drag it from street to street till she was dead.’ Who acts: Nothing, bride. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm,
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Goose-girl, sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Nothing better,’ said this false bride, ‘than that she should be thrown into a cask stuck round with sharp nails, and that two white horses should be put to it, and should drag it from street to street till she was dead.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Nothing, bride · **What happens:** say, throw, stick, put, drag, be · **To what, where:** false bride, bride, cask, two white horses, nail, horse · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Goose-girl. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nothing, bride), 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:pg2591:15:91
# text = ‘Nothing better,’ said this false bride, ‘than that she should be thrown into a cask stuck round with sharp nails, and that two white horses should be put to it, and should drag it from street to street till she was dead.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	6	nsubj	_	_
3	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
8	false	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	fixed	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	thrown	throw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	cask	cask	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	stuck	stick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	round	round	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	nails	nail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
29	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
30	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	drag	drag	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obj	_	_
42	from	from	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	_
44	to	to	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	_
46	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	49	mark	_	_
47	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
48	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	cop	_	_
49	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	40	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Nothing | this false bride |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent bride=Topic |
| 2 | **throw** | should · passive |  | bride |  |  |  | into a cask *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Theme into cask=Result |
| 3 | **stick** | participle |  | a cask *not said here* |  |  |  | with sharp nails; round *property* | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with nail=Instrument |
| 4 | **put** | should · passive |  | two white horses | nail |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: subject=Goal |
| 5 | **drag** | should |  | horse |  | street |  | to street | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme from street=Initial\_Location to street=Destination |
| 6 | **is** | past | bride |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 2591 (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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