---
title: ‘Nothing nothing,’ he answered, and held his finger behind his back,… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Nothing nothing,’ he answered, and held his finger behind his back, that the man might not see it. Who acts: boy, man. 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 43

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‘Nothing nothing,’ he answered, and held his finger behind his back, that the man might not see it.

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**Who acts:** boy, man · **What happens:** answer, hold, not see · **To what, where:** nothing, finger, back

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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 (boy, man), 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:pg2591:59:43
# text = ‘Nothing nothing,’ he answered, and held his finger behind his back, that the man might not see it.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nothing	nothing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
20	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | boy | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hold** | past | boy *not said here* | boy's finger |  | boy's back |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent finger=Theme behind back=Location |
| 3 | **not** **see** | might | the man | back |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |

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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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