---
title: When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said: ‘No… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said: ‘Now, children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire that you may not be cold.’ Who acts: wife, father, children, I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Gretel, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said: ‘Now, children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire that you may not be cold.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wife, father, children, I, fire · **What happens:** reach, say, pile up, light, not be · **To what, where:** middle, wood, fire · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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: who acts (wife, father, children, I), 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:pg2591:20:28
# text = When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said: ‘Now, children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire that you may not be cold.’
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	reached	reach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	pile	pile	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	light	light	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	nsubj	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
33	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	36	advmod	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	cop	_	_
36	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past · perfect | wife | the middle of the forest |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent middle=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the father |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **pile up** | present | children *not said here* | some wood |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP.theme V NP»: agent=Theme wood=Destination |
| 4 | **light** | future | I | a fire |  |  |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fire=Product |
| 5 | **not** **is** | may | a fire |  |  |  |  | cold *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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