---
title: Still he meant to try him first; so taking up a pebble, he squeezed… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Still he meant to try him first; so taking up a pebble, he squeezed it so hard that water dropped out of it. " Who acts: Tailor, water. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Valiant Little Tailor, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Valiant Little Tailor, sentence 28

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Still he meant to try him first; so taking up a pebble, he squeezed it so hard that water dropped out of it. "

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**Who acts:** Tailor, water · **What happens:** mean, try, take up, squeeze, drop out · **To what, where:** Tailor, pebble

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Valiant Little Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tailor, water), 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:pg11027:13:28
# text = Still he meant to try him first; so taking up a pebble, he squeezed it so hard that water dropped out of it. "
1	Still	still	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	pebble	pebble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	squeezed	squeeze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
20	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
23	out	out	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | past | Tailor |  |  |  | still |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **try** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Tailor *not said here* | Tailor |  |  |  | first *property* | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 3 | **take up** | gerund | Tailor *not said here* | a pebble |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pebble=Theme |
| 4 | **squeeze** | past | Tailor | pebble |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **drop out** | past | that water | pebble |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

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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:** «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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