---
title: They were not counters, but bright gold, which was all the property… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: They were not counters, but bright gold, which was all the property we possessed: you should not have done so." Who acts: pedlars, bright gold, we, you. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Catherine and Frederick, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Catherine and Frederick, sentence 34

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They were not counters, but bright gold, which was all the property we possessed: you should not have done so."

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**Who acts:** pedlars, bright gold, we, you · **What happens:** not be, be, possess, not do · **To what, where:** counters, property

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Catherine and Frederick. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pedlars, bright gold, we, you), 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:pg11027:12:34
# text = They were not counters, but bright gold, which was all the property we possessed: you should not have done so."
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	counters	counter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	14	det:predet	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	property	property	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	possessed	possess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
22	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | pedlars *= pedlar* | counters but bright gold |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | bright gold | all property |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **possess** | past | we | all property *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot property=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **do** | should · perfect | you | counters but bright gold *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent counter=Eventuality |

<!-- .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:** «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 11027 (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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