---
title: She killed two fowls, scalded them, plucked them, put them on the sp… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: She killed two fowls, scalded them, plucked them, put them on the spit, and towards evening set them before the fire, that they might roast. Who acts: Gretel, fowls. 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 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She killed two fowls, scalded them, plucked them, put them on the spit, and towards evening set them before the fire, that they might roast.

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**Who acts:** Gretel, fowls · **What happens:** kill, scald, pluck, put, set, roast · **To what, where:** two fowls, fowls, spit, fire

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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 (Gretel, fowls), 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:pg2591:26:5
# text = She killed two fowls, scalded them, plucked them, put them on the spit, and towards evening set them before the fire, that they might roast.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	fowls	fowl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	scalded	scald	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	plucked	pluck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	spit	spit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
21	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	before	before	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	roast	roast	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** | past | Gretel | two fowls |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fowl=Theme |
| 2 | **scald** | past | Gretel *not said here* | fowls *= fowl* |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **pluck** | past | Gretel *not said here* | fowls *= fowl* |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 4 | **put** | infinitive | Gretel *not said here* | fowls *= fowl* |  | the spit |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme on spit=Destination |
| 5 | **set** | past | Gretel *not said here* | fowls *= fowl* |  | the fire | evening |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme before fire=Destination |
| 6 | **roast** | might | fowls *= fowl* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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