---
title: The Wolf was thinking to himself, "She is a nice tender thing, and w… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: The Wolf was thinking to himself, "She is a nice tender thing, and will taste better than the old woman; I must act cleverly, that I may make a meal of both." Who acts: Wolf, grandmother. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Little Red Cap, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Little Red Cap, sentence 15

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The Wolf was thinking to himself, "She is a nice tender thing, and will taste better than the old woman; I must act cleverly, that I may make a meal of both."

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**Who acts:** Wolf, grandmother · **What happens:** think, be, taste, act, make · **To what, where:** Wolf, nice tender thing, meal · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Little Red Cap. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wolf, grandmother), 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:pg11027:14:15
# text = The Wolf was thinking to himself, "She is a nice tender thing, and will taste better than the old woman; I must act cleverly, that I may make a meal of both."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	tender	tender	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	taste	taste	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
19	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	xcomp	_	_
20	than	than	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	act	act	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	parataxis	_	_
28	cleverly	cleverly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	parataxis	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past · progressive | the Wolf |  | Wolf |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | grandmother | a nice tender thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **taste** *in a quote* | future |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **act** *in a quote* | must | the Wolf *= wolf* |  |  |  |  | cleverly *property* | vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **make** *in a quote* | may | the Wolf *= wolf* | a meal of both |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meal=Product |

<!-- .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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