---
title: The miller’s wife was alone in the house, and said to the peasant: ‘… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The miller’s wife was alone in the house, and said to the peasant: ‘Lay yourself on the straw there,’ and gave him a slice of bread and cheese. Who acts: wife. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Little Peasant, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Little Peasant, sentence 19

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The miller’s wife was alone in the house, and said to the peasant: ‘Lay yourself on the straw there,’ and gave him a slice of bread and cheese.

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**Who acts:** wife · **What happens:** be, say, lay, give, slice · **To what, where:** house, yourself, straw, slice, storm, bread · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Little Peasant. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife), 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:pg2591:28:19
# text = The miller’s wife was alone in the house, and said to the peasant: ‘Lay yourself on the straw there,’ and gave him a slice of bread and cheese.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	miller	miller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
6	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
19	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	18	obj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	iobj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	slice	slice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	cheese	cheese	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the miller's wife |  |  | the house |  | alone *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  | to the peasant | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to peasant=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 3 | **lay** | infinitive |  | yourself |  | the straw; there |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent yourself=Theme on straw=Destination |
| 4 | **give** | past |  | a slice of bread and cheese | storm |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient slice=Theme |
| 5 | **slice** |  |  | bread |  |  |  |  | nom slice «possession transitive»: of=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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