---
title: ‘I am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof,… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof, and wants to say goodbye to me,’ answered Hansel. Who acts: I, little pigeon. 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 54

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‘I am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof, and wants to say goodbye to me,’ answered Hansel.

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**Who acts:** I, little pigeon · **What happens:** look back, sit, want, say, answer · **To what, where:** roof, goodbye, me, Hansel · **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 (I, little pigeon), 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:pg2591:20:54
# text = ‘I am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof, and wants to say goodbye to me,’ answered Hansel.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	ccomp	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	wants	want	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	goodbye	goodbye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
26	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
27	Hansel	Hansel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look back** | present · progressive | I |  |  |  |  | at my little pigeon | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at pigeon=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | present · progressive | my little pigeon |  |  | the roof |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on roof=Location |
| 3 | **want** | present | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | goodbye | me |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent goodbye=Topic to i=Recipient |
| 5 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | Hansel |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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