---
title: The sexton said to himself, "That is not a bad thought"; but he rema… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: The sexton said to himself, "That is not a bad thought"; but he remained quiet as if he were a stone. Who acts: sexton, That, boy. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, sentence 27

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The sexton said to himself, "That is not a bad thought"; but he remained quiet as if he were a stone.

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**Who acts:** sexton, That, boy · **What happens:** say, not be, remain, be · **To what, where:** boy, bad thought · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sexton, That, boy), 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:pg11027:9:27
# text = The sexton said to himself, "That is not a bad thought"; but he remained quiet as if he were a stone.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sexton	sexton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	25	case	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	fixed	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the sexton |  | boy |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | present | That | a bad thought |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **remain** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | quiet *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | as a stone | tree rules |

<!-- .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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