---
title: The thieves, however, had in their fright run some distance away, bu… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: The thieves, however, had in their fright run some distance away, but at last they took courage, and thought, "The little rascal wants to mock us." Who acts: thieves, fright, little rascal. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Water of Life, sentence 135

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The thieves, however, had in their fright run some distance away, but at last they took courage, and thought, "The little rascal wants to mock us."

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**Who acts:** thieves, fright, little rascal · **What happens:** have, run away, take, think, want, mock · **To what, where:** distance, courage, last, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thieves, fright, little rascal), 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:pg11027:17:135
# text = The thieves, however, had in their fright run some distance away, but at last they took courage, and thought, "The little rascal wants to mock us."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	run	run	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
11	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
12	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	away	away	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	obl	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	courage	courage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	rascal	rascal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	wants	want	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	ccomp	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	mock	mock	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the thieves |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **run away** | present | thieves's fright | some distance |  |  |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme distance=Trajectory |
| 3 | **take** | past | thieves *= thief* | courage |  | last |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent courage=Theme at last=Asset |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the thieves *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **want** *in a quote* | present | the little rascal |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **mock** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | the little rascal *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Theme |
| 7 | **fright** |  | thieves *= thief* |  |  |  |  |  | nom fright «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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