---
title: ‘Softly, softly; it can’t be done as quickly as that,’ said he, and… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Softly, softly; it can’t be done as quickly as that,’ said he, and stood still and waited until the animal was quite close, and then sprang nimbly behind the tree. Who acts: blow, animal. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Valiant Little Tailor, with its dependency tree and the
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/19/121/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / [The Valiant Little Tailor](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/19/) / 121

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Valiant Little Tailor, sentence 121

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Softly, softly; it can’t be done as quickly as that,’ said he, and stood still and waited until the animal was quite close, and then sprang nimbly behind the tree.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** blow, animal · **What happens:** not do, say, stand, wait, be, spring · **To what, where:** dwelling, tree · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Valiant Little Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (blow, animal), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2591:19:121
# text = ‘Softly, softly; it can’t be done as quickly as that,’ said he, and stood still and waited until the animal was quite close, and then sprang nimbly behind the tree.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	ccomp	_	_
11	as	as	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
22	still	still	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
25	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	34	advmod	_	_
34	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
35	nimbly	nimbly	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | can · passive |  | dwelling |  |  |  | as that; quickly, softly *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | blow |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **stand** | past | blow *not said here* |  |  |  | still |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **wait** | past | blow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | the animal |  |  |  |  | close *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **spring** | past | blow *not said here* |  |  | the tree | then | nimbly *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind tree=Trajectory |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/19/120/)
- next →: [sentence 122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/19/122/)
- ↑ back to [The Valiant Little Tailor](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/19/)