---
title: ‘What nonsense!’ said she; ‘if he can make an emperor, he can make a… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What nonsense!’ said she; ‘if he can make an emperor, he can make a pope: go and try him.’ Who acts: pope, fish. 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 84

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‘What nonsense!’ said she; ‘if he can make an emperor, he can make a pope: go and try him.’

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**Who acts:** pope, fish · **What happens:** nonsense, say, make, go, try · **To what, where:** emperor, pope, fish · **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 (pope, fish), 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:pg2591:11:84
# text = ‘What nonsense!’ said she; ‘if he can make an emperor, he can make a pope: go and try him.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
3	nonsense	nonsense	NOUN	NN	_	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	pope	pope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
23	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	try	try	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **nonsense** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | pope |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **make** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | fish | a emperor |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent emperor=Product |
| 4 | **make** | can | fish | a pope |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pope=Product |
| 5 | **go** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **try** | infinitive |  | fish |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |

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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:** «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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