---
title: The wife liked the thought; so they left a light burning, and hid th… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The wife liked the thought; so they left a light burning, and hid themselves in a corner of the room, behind a curtain that was hung up there, and watched what would happen. Who acts: wife, shoes, light. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Elves and the Shoemaker, with its depend
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Elves and the Shoemaker, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The wife liked the thought; so they left a light burning, and hid themselves in a corner of the room, behind a curtain that was hung up there, and watched what would happen.

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**Who acts:** wife, shoes, light · **What happens:** like, leave, burn, hide, hang up, watch · **To what, where:** thought, light, shoes, corner, curtain

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Elves and the Shoemaker. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, shoes, light), 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:pg2591:37:12
# text = The wife liked the thought; so they left a light burning, and hid themselves in a corner of the room, behind a curtain that was hung up there, and watched what would happen.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	liked	like	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	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	curtain	curtain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	up	up	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
35	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	37	nsubj	_	_
36	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** | past | the wife | the thought |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot thought=Theme |
| 2 | **leave** | past | shoes *= shoe* | a light |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Theme |
| 3 | **burn** | gerund | a light *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **hide** | past | shoes *= shoe* *not said here* | shoes *= shoe* |  | a corner of the room |  | behind a curtain | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient in corner=Location |
| 5 | **hang up** | past · passive |  | a curtain |  | there |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 6 | **watch** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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