---
title: "Then promise me your first-born child if you become Queen," said he. — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: "Then promise me your first-born child if you become Queen," said he. Who acts: you, child. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Three Little Men in the Wood, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Three Little Men in the Wood, sentence 108

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"Then promise me your first-born child if you become Queen," said he.

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**Who acts:** you, child · **What happens:** promise, bear, become, say · **To what, where:** first born child, child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Three Little Men in the Wood. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, child), 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:pg11027:24:108
# text = "Then promise me your first-born child if you become Queen," said he.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	promise	promise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
6	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	amod	_	_
9	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	become	become	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
13	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* *in a quote* | infinitive |  | your first born child | child |  | then |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent i=Goal child=Theme |
| 2 | **bear** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **become** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | child |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=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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