---
title: The children, too, had not been able to sleep for hunger, and had he… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The children, too, had not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard what their step-mother had said to their father. Who acts: children, step mother. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hansel and Grettel, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Hansel and Grettel, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The children, too, had not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard what their step-mother had said to their father.

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**Who acts:** children, step mother · **What happens:** not be, sleep, hear, say · **To what, where:** father · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hansel and Grettel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children, step mother), 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:pg503:35:10
# text = The children, too, had not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard what their step-mother had said to their father.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
9	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	hunger	hunger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
20	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	acl:relcl	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past · perfect | the children |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | the children *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for hunger | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **hear** | past · perfect | the children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | children's step mother |  | children's father |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to father=Recipient |

<!-- .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:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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