---
title: Then they showed her a little corner under the staircase, where no l… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they showed her a little corner under the staircase, where no light of day ever peeped in, and said, ‘Cat-skin, you may lie and sleep there.’ Who acts: father, light, you. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Iron Hans, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Iron Hans, sentence 174

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then they showed her a little corner under the staircase, where no light of day ever peeped in, and said, ‘Cat-skin, you may lie and sleep there.’

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**Who acts:** father, light, you · **What happens:** show, peep, say, lie, sleep, light · **To what, where:** little corner, beast, staircase, day · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Iron Hans. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, light, you), 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:pg2591:59:174
# text = Then they showed her a little corner under the staircase, where no light of day ever peeped in, and said, ‘Cat-skin, you may lie and sleep there.’
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
8	under	under	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	staircase	staircase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	18	advmod	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	18	advmod	_	_
18	peeped	peep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
19	in	in	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	Cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	conj	_	_
34	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **show** | past | father | a little corner | beast | the staircase | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient corner=Topic |
| 2 | **peep** | past | no light of day |  |  |  | ever |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **lie** | may | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **sleep** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **light** |  |  | day |  |  |  |  | nom light «phenomenon 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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