---
title: ‘And there is also no ferry,’ answered Gretel, ‘but a white duck is… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘And there is also no ferry,’ answered Gretel, ‘but a white duck is swimming there: if I ask her, she will help us over.’ Who acts: ferry, white duck, I, duck. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Gretel, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/20/125/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / [Hansel and Gretel](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/20/) / 125

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel, sentence 125

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘And there is also no ferry,’ answered Gretel, ‘but a white duck is swimming there: if I ask her, she will help us over.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ferry, white duck, I, duck · **What happens:** be, answer, swim, ask, help over · **To what, where:** ferry, Gretel, duck, us

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Gretel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ferry, white duck, I, duck), 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:pg2591:20:125
# text = ‘And there is also no ferry,’ answered Gretel, ‘but a white duck is swimming there: if I ask her, she will help us over.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	also	also	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	ferry	ferry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	Gretel	Gretel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
20	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
27	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
30	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	over	over	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | no ferry |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | no ferry |  | Gretel |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent gretel=Eventuality |
| 3 | **swim** | present · progressive | a white duck |  |  | there |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* *a condition, not said to happen* | present | I |  | duck |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 5 | **help over** | future | duck |  | us |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/20/124/)
- next →: [sentence 126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/20/126/)
- ↑ back to [Hansel and Gretel](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/20/)