---
title: He being behind, was very cheerful, and laughed at the trick, and pr… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He being behind, was very cheerful, and laughed at the trick, and presently began to sing the song, "There rode three tailors out at the gate," as if the carrying of trees were a trifle. Who acts: Tailor, trifle. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Valiant Little Tailor, with i
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/13/41/)

<!-- 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/) / [Grimm's Fairy Stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/) / [The Valiant Little Tailor](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/13/) / 41

# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Valiant Little Tailor, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He being behind, was very cheerful, and laughed at the trick, and presently began to sing the song, "There rode three tailors out at the gate," as if the carrying of trees were a trifle.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Tailor, trifle · **What happens:** be, laugh, begin, sing, ride out, carry · **To what, where:** trick, song, three tailors, gate · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, trifle), 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:pg11027:13:41
# text = He being behind, was very cheerful, and laughed at the trick, and presently began to sing the song, "There rode three tailors out at the gate," as if the carrying of trees were a trifle.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	cop	_	_
3	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	trick	trick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	25	expl	_	_
25	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
26	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	tailors	tailor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	out	out	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	37	punct	_	_
34	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
35	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obl	_	_
40	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	ccomp	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	trifle	trifle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | gerund | Tailor |  |  |  |  | behind *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | cheerful *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **laugh** | past |  |  |  | the trick |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  | presently *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | to-infinitive |  | the song |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme |
| 6 | **ride out** *in a quote* | past |  | three tailors |  | the gate; there |  | out *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tailor=Theme |
| 7 | **carry** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | of trees | tree rules |
| 8 | **be** | past | a trifle |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/13/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/13/42/)
- ↑ back to [The Valiant Little Tailor](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/13/)