---
title: The miller saw the peasant lying on the straw, and asked, ‘What is t… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The miller saw the peasant lying on the straw, and asked, ‘What is that fellow doing there?’ Who acts: miller, peasant, that. 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 29

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The miller saw the peasant lying on the straw, and asked, ‘What is that fellow doing there?’

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**Who acts:** miller, peasant, that · **What happens:** see, lie, ask, do · **To what, where:** peasant, straw · **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 (miller, peasant, that), 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:pg2591:28:29
# text = The miller saw the peasant lying on the straw, and asked, ‘What is that fellow doing there?’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	miller	miller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	nsubj	_	_
18	fellow	fellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
20	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the miller | the peasant |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer peasant=Stimulus |
| 2 | **lie** | gerund | the peasant *not said here* |  |  | the straw |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on straw=Location |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the miller *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **do** | present · progressive | that |  |  | there |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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