---
title: But the faithful John replied, "I am only the servant of a rich merc… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: But the faithful John replied, "I am only the servant of a rich merchant; what I have here is nothing in comparison to those which my master has in his ship, than which nothing more delicate or costly has ever been worked in gold." Who acts: faithful John, servant, master. A sentence of «Grimm's Fai
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Faithful John, sentence 39

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But the faithful John replied, "I am only the servant of a rich merchant; what I have here is nothing in comparison to those which my master has in his ship, than which nothing more delicate or costly has ever been worked in gold."

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**Who acts:** faithful John, servant, master · **What happens:** reply, be, have, work · **To what, where:** servant, nothing, comparison, ship, gold · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Faithful John. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (faithful John, servant, master), 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:pg11027:16:39
# text = But the faithful John replied, "I am only the servant of a rich merchant; what I have here is nothing in comparison to those which my master has in his ship, than which nothing more delicate or costly has ever been worked in gold."
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	faithful	faithful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	only	only	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	nsubj	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	appos	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	comparison	comparison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	23	nmod	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nmod	_	_
29	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
36	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
37	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	38	det	_	_
38	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	46	nsubj:pass	_	_
39	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	40	advmod	_	_
40	delicate	delicate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
41	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	costly	costly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	conj	_	_
43	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
44	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	46	advmod	_	_
45	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	46	aux:pass	_	_
46	worked	work	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	conj	_	_
47	in	in	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the faithful John |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the faithful John *= john* | the servant |  |  |  | of a rich merchant | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present | the faithful John *= john* |  |  | here |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the servant | nothing |  | comparison |  | to those | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** *in a quote* | present | my master |  |  | John's ship |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **work** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | nothing |  | gold | ever |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: subject=Material |

<!-- .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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