---
title: It came to pass that the master one day said to her: ‘Gretel, there… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It came to pass that the master one day said to her: ‘Gretel, there is a guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily.’ Who acts: food, master, guest. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Clever Gretel, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Clever Gretel, sentence 3

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It came to pass that the master one day said to her: ‘Gretel, there is a guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily.’

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**Who acts:** food, master, guest · **What happens:** come, pass, say, be, prepare · **To what, where:** Gretel, cook, two fowls, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Clever Gretel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (food, master, guest), 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:pg2591:26:3
# text = It came to pass that the master one day said to her: ‘Gretel, there is a guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily.’
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:unmarked	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Gretel	Gretel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	guest	guest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
21	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
22	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
23	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
25	prepare	prepare	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
26	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	fowls	fowl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
29	very	very	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	daintily	daintily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | food | Gretel |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** | to-infinitive | food *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the master  one day |  | cook |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |
| 4 | **be** | present | a guest | Gretel *not said here* |  | there |  |  | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot gretel=Theme |
| 5 | **come** | gerund | a guest *not said here* |  |  |  | evening |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **prepare** | infinitive |  | two fowls | me |  |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary fowl=Product |

<!-- .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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