---
title: But as she crossed the threshold, crash! the bird threw the millston… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But as she crossed the threshold, crash! the bird threw the millstone down on her head, and she was crushed to death. Who acts: bird. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Juniper-tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/38/147/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / [The Juniper-tree](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/38/) / 147

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Juniper-tree, sentence 147

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But as she crossed the threshold, crash! the bird threw the millstone down on her head, and she was crushed to death.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bird · **What happens:** cross, throw down, crush · **To what, where:** threshold, millstone, head, bird

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Juniper-tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2591:38:147
# text = But as she crossed the threshold, crash! the bird threw the millstone down on her head, and she was crushed to death.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	crossed	cross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	threshold	threshold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	crash	crash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	millstone	millstone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	down	down	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	crushed	crush	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | past | bird | the threshold and crash |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent threshold=Patient |
| 2 | **throw down** | past | the bird | the millstone |  | bird's head |  | down *property* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent millstone=Theme on head=Destination |
| 3 | **crush** | past · passive |  | bird |  |  |  | to death *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Patient to death=Result |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 146](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/38/146/)
- next →: [sentence 148](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/38/148/)
- ↑ back to [The Juniper-tree](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/38/)