---
title: When she came to the field she said to herself: ‘What shall I do; sh… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When she came to the field she said to herself: ‘What shall I do; shall I cut first, or shall I eat first? Who acts: Hans, I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Clever Elsie, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Clever Elsie, sentence 39

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When she came to the field she said to herself: ‘What shall I do; shall I cut first, or shall I eat first?

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**Who acts:** Hans, I · **What happens:** come, say, do, cut, eat · **To what, where:** field, Hans · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Clever Elsie. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hans, I), 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:pg2591:32:39
# text = When she came to the field she said to herself: ‘What shall I do; shall I cut first, or shall I eat first?
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	obj	_	_
14	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
21	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	parataxis	_	_
27	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Hans |  |  | the field |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to field=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Hans |  | Hans |  |  |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient whether/if S»: agent=Pivot to herself=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | shall | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **cut** | shall | I |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **eat** | shall | I |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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