---
title: And the wife struck; but she missed her aim, and hit her husband on… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And the wife struck; but she missed her aim, and hit her husband on the head so that he fell down dead, and the sparrow flew quietly home to her nest. Who acts: wife, husband, sparrow. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Dog and the Sparrow, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Dog and the Sparrow, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the wife struck; but she missed her aim, and hit her husband on the head so that he fell down dead, and the sparrow flew quietly home to her nest.

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**Who acts:** wife, husband, sparrow · **What happens:** strike, miss, hit, fall down, fly, aim · **To what, where:** aim, husband, nest

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Dog and the Sparrow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, husband, sparrow), 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:pg2591:9:58
# text = And the wife struck; but she missed her aim, and hit her husband on the head so that he fell down dead, and the sparrow flew quietly home to her nest.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	missed	miss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	aim	aim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
19	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	22	mark	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	fixed	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
23	down	down	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
30	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	home	home	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | past | the wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
| 2 | **miss** | past | wife | wife's aim |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer aim=Stimulus |
| 3 | **hit** | past | wife *not said here* | wife's husband |  |  |  | on the head | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent husband=Instrument on head=Patient |
| 4 | **fall down** | past | husband |  |  |  |  | dead, down *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fly** | past | the sparrow |  |  | wife's nest |  | home *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to nest=Destination |
| 6 | **aim** |  | wife |  |  |  |  |  | nom aim «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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