---
title: ‘What does that matter,’ said the cat, ‘it is no worse than Crumb-st… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What does that matter,’ said the cat, ‘it is no worse than Crumb-stealer, as your godchildren are called.’ Who acts: matter. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Cat and Mouse in Partnership, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Cat and Mouse in Partnership, sentence 18

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‘What does that matter,’ said the cat, ‘it is no worse than Crumb-stealer, as your godchildren are called.’

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**Who acts:** matter · **What happens:** do, say, not be, call · **To what, where:** matter, cat, godchildren · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Cat and Mouse in Partnership. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (matter), 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:pg2591:14:18
# text = ‘What does that matter,’ said the cat, ‘it is no worse than Crumb-stealer, as your godchildren are called.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
3	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	no	no	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	ccomp	_	_
17	than	than	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	Crumb	Crumb	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	stealer	stealer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	godchildren	godchild	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present |  | that matter |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent matter=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the cat |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent cat=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **is** | present | matter |  |  |  |  | than Crumb stealer; bad *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **call** | present · passive |  | your godchildren |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |

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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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