---
title: ‘No, wife,’ said the man, ‘I will not do that; how can I bear to lea… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘No, wife,’ said the man, ‘I will not do that; how can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest?--the wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces.’ Who acts: wife, I, wild animals. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Gretel, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘No, wife,’ said the man, ‘I will not do that; how can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest?--the wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces.’

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**Who acts:** wife, I, wild animals · **What happens:** say, not do, bear, leave, come, tear · **To what, where:** man, that, children, forest · **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, I, wild animals), 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:pg2591:20:8
# text = ‘No, wife,’ said the man, ‘I will not do that; how can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest?--the wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
19	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj	_	_
35	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	37	advmod	_	_
37	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	tear	tear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	conj	_	_
40	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	_
41	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	37	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | wife | the man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **do** | future | I | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 3 | **bear** | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **leave** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | my children |  | the forest |  | alone *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent child=Theme in forest=Location |
| 5 | **come** | would | the wild animals |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **tear** | infinitive | the wild animals *not said here* | children *= child* |  |  |  | to pieces *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent they=Patient to piece=Result |

<!-- .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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