---
title: It was not the axe, however, but a branch which he had fastened to a… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was not the axe, however, but a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was blowing backwards and forwards. Who acts: piece, wind. 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 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was not the axe, however, but a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was blowing backwards and forwards.

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**Who acts:** piece, wind · **What happens:** not be, fasten, wither, blow · **To what, where:** axe, branch, withered tree

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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 (piece, wind), 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:pg2591:20:33
# text = It was not the axe, however, but a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was blowing backwards and forwards.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	however	however	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl:relcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	withered	wither	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	amod	_	_
19	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	blowing	blow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	acl	_	_
25	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	forwards	forwards	ADV	RB	_	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | piece | the axe |  |  |  | however *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fasten** | past · perfect · passive |  | a branch |  |  |  | to a withered tree | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Patient to tree=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **wither** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **blow** | past · progressive | the wind | a withered tree |  |  |  | backwards *property* | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent which=Patient |

<!-- .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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