---
title: ‘That is the King of birds,’ said the wolf, ‘before whom we must bow… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘That is the King of birds,’ said the wolf, ‘before whom we must bow down.’ Who acts: That, King, we. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Willow-wren and the Bear, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Willow-wren and the Bear, sentence 2

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‘That is the King of birds,’ said the wolf, ‘before whom we must bow down.’

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**Who acts:** That, King, we · **What happens:** be, say, bow down · **To what, where:** King, wolf · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Willow-wren and the Bear. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (That, King, we), 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:pg2591:12:2
# text = ‘That is the King of birds,’ said the wolf, ‘before whom we must bow down.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	before	before	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	bow	bow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
20	down	down	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | That | the King |  |  |  | of birds | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the King | the wolf |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent wolf=Topic |
| 3 | **bow down** | must | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before whom=Location |

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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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