---
title: ‘Perhaps we may,’ said the wife; ‘but let us sleep upon it, before w… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Perhaps we may,’ said the wife; ‘but let us sleep upon it, before we make up our minds to that.’ Who acts: us, we, our. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Fisherman and His Wife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Fisherman and His Wife, sentence 37

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‘Perhaps we may,’ said the wife; ‘but let us sleep upon it, before we make up our minds to that.’

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**Who acts:** us, we, our · **What happens:** say, let, sleep, make up, mind · **To what, where:** wife, us, minds · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Fisherman and His Wife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (us, we, our), 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:pg2591:11:37
# text = ‘Perhaps we may,’ said the wife; ‘but let us sleep upon it, before we make up our minds to that.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
14	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
22	up	up	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
23	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	minds	mind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	NFP	_	7	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 wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **sleep** | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon castle | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **make up** | present | we | our minds |  |  |  | to that | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mind=Pivot |
| 5 | **mind** |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition 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:** «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 2591 (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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