---
title: There’s never a plank, or bridge in sight, Take us across on thy bac… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There’s never a plank, or bridge in sight, Take us across on thy back so white.’ A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Gretel, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel, sentence 128

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There’s never a plank, or bridge in sight, Take us across on thy back so white.’

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**What happens:** take · **To what, where:** us, back

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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: 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:pg2591:20:128
# text = There’s never a plank, or bridge in sight, Take us across on thy back so white.’
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	plank	plank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	Take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	across	across	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | infinitive |  |  | us | thy back |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument we=Destination |

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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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