---
title: They tore up trees in their sore need, and defended themselves with… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They tore up trees in their sore need, and defended themselves with them, but all that is to no purpose when a man like myself comes, who can kill seven at one blow.’ Who acts: branches, all, man. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Valiant Little Tailor, with its dependency tree
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Valiant Little Tailor, sentence 109

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They tore up trees in their sore need, and defended themselves with them, but all that is to no purpose when a man like myself comes, who can kill seven at one blow.’

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**Who acts:** branches, all, man · **What happens:** tore up, defend, be, come, kill, need · **To what, where:** trees, sore need, branches, seven, one blow

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Valiant Little Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (branches, all, man), 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:pg2591:19:109
# text = They tore up trees in their sore need, and defended themselves with them, but all that is to no purpose when a man like myself comes, who can kill seven at one blow.’
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tore	tore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	sore	sore	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	need	need	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	defended	defend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	nsubj	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	obj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	22	det	_	_
22	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
23	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	28	mark	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
26	like	like	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	nmod	_	_
28	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
31	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
33	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	obj	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	nummod	_	_
36	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tore up** | past | branches *= branch* | trees |  | branches's sore need |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **defend** | past | branches *= branch* *not said here* | branches *= branch* |  |  |  | with branches *= branch* | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **is** | present | all |  |  |  |  | to no purpose | tree rules |
| 4 | **come** | present | a man like myself |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **kill** | can |  | seven |  | one blow |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seven=Theme |
| 6 | **need** |  | branches *= branch* |  |  |  |  |  | nom need «state transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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