---
title: The thieves took flight, and ran as if the Wild Huntsman were behind… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: The thieves took flight, and ran as if the Wild Huntsman were behind them, but as the maid could not see anything, she went to strike a light. Who acts: thieves, Wild Huntsman, maid. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Water of Life, sentence 139

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The thieves took flight, and ran as if the Wild Huntsman were behind them, but as the maid could not see anything, she went to strike a light.

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**Who acts:** thieves, Wild Huntsman, maid · **What happens:** take, run, be, not see, go, strike · **To what, where:** flight, anything, light

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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, Wild Huntsman, maid), 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:pg11027:17:139
# text = The thieves took flight, and ran as if the Wild Huntsman were behind them, but as the maid could not see anything, she went to strike a light.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	Wild	Wild	PROPN	NNP	_	12	flat	_	_
12	Huntsman	Huntsman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
24	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the thieves | flight |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flight=Theme |
| 2 | **run** | past | the thieves *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | the Wild Huntsman |  |  |  |  | behind thieves *= thief* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **see** | could | the maid | anything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |
| 5 | **go** | past | maid |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **strike** | to-infinitive | maid *not said here* | a light |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Patient |

<!-- .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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