---
title: If you do not promise to instruct him in everything he ought to know… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: If you do not promise to instruct him in everything he ought to know, and to be his guardian, I cannot close my eyes in peace." Who acts: you, John, I. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Faithful John, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Faithful John, sentence 4

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If you do not promise to instruct him in everything he ought to know, and to be his guardian, I cannot close my eyes in peace."

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**Who acts:** you, John, I · **What happens:** not promise, instruct, know, be, not close · **To what, where:** John, everything, eyes

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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 (you, John, I), 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:pg11027:16:4
# text = If you do not promise to instruct him in everything he ought to know, and to be his guardian, I cannot close my eyes in peace."
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	promise	promise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	instruct	instruct	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	7	obl	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	guardian	guardian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	peace	peace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **promise** *speech: promise* *a condition, not said to happen* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **instruct** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  | John | everything |  |  | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 3 | **know** | ought | John |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | guardian *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **close** | can | I | my eyes |  |  |  | in peace | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent eye=Patient in peace=Topic |

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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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