---
title: The straw, however, began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell int… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The straw, however, began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into the stream. Who acts: straw. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean, sentence 17

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The straw, however, began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into the stream.

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**Who acts:** straw · **What happens:** begin, burn, break, fall · **To what, where:** two pieces, stream

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (straw), 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:pg2591:7:17
# text = The straw, however, began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into the stream.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the straw |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **burn** | to-infinitive | the straw *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | past | the straw *not said here* |  |  | two pieces |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in piece=Location |
| 4 | **fall** | past | the straw *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into the stream *result* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into stream=Result |

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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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