---
title: They gave him plenty of food, yet for all they could do he never gre… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They gave him plenty of food, yet for all they could do he never grew bigger, but kept just the same size as he had been when he was born. Who acts: people, all. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Tom Thumb, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They gave him plenty of food, yet for all they could do he never grew bigger, but kept just the same size as he had been when he was born.

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**Who acts:** people, all · **What happens:** give, do, not grow, keep, bear · **To what, where:** plenty, wish, same size

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Tom Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, all), 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:pg2591:25:8
# text = They gave him plenty of food, yet for all they could do he never grew bigger, but kept just the same size as he had been when he was born.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
8	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	nsubj	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
21	just	just	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
28	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	aux:pass	_	_
29	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | people | plenty of food | wish |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient plenty=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | could | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **grow** | past | all |  |  |  |  | big *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **keep** | past | all *not said here* | the same size |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **bear** | past · perfect · passive |  | wish |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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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