---
title: This, however, none of them could ever do; for the thorns and bushes… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: This, however, none of them could ever do; for the thorns and bushes laid hold of them, as it were with hands; and there they stuck fast, and died wretchedly. Who acts: This, hold, king. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Briar Rose, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/8/28/)

<!-- 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/) / [Briar Rose](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/8/) / 28

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Briar Rose, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This, however, none of them could ever do; for the thorns and bushes laid hold of them, as it were with hands; and there they stuck fast, and died wretchedly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** This, hold, king · **What happens:** do, lay, be, stick, die, hold · **To what, where:** king

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Briar Rose. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, hold, king), 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:pg2591:8:28
# text = This, however, none of them could ever do; for the thorns and bushes laid hold of them, as it were with hands; and there they stuck fast, and died wretchedly.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	however	however	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	10	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	10	advmod	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	thorns	thorn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	_
17	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
18	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	31	advmod	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	stuck	stick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
32	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
36	wretchedly	wretchedly	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | could | This |  |  |  | ever | for the thorns and bushes and laid hold of king; however *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **lay** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | hold |  |  |  |  | as hands | tree rules |
| 4 | **stick** | past | king |  |  | there |  | fast *property* | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **die** | past | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | wretchedly *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 6 | **hold** |  |  | king |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act 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.

<!-- 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 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/8/27/)
- next →: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/8/29/)
- ↑ back to [Briar Rose](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/8/)