---
title: He took the little tailor to a mighty oak tree which lay there felle… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He took the little tailor to a mighty oak tree which lay there felled on the ground, and said: ‘If you are strong enough, help me to carry the tree out of the forest.’ Who acts: tailor, mighty oak tree, you, me. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Valiant Little Tailor, with its 
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Valiant Little Tailor, sentence 43

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He took the little tailor to a mighty oak tree which lay there felled on the ground, and said: ‘If you are strong enough, help me to carry the tree out of the forest.’

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**Who acts:** tailor, mighty oak tree, you, me · **What happens:** take, lie, fell, say, be, help · **To what, where:** little tailor, mighty oak tree, ground, me, tree, forest · **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 (tailor, mighty oak tree, you, me), 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:pg2591:19:43
# text = He took the little tailor to a mighty oak tree which lay there felled on the ground, and said: ‘If you are strong enough, help me to carry the tree out of the forest.’
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
9	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
13	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
14	felled	fell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	xcomp	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
22	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	advcl	_	_
27	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
29	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	out	out	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | tailor | the little tailor |  | a mighty oak tree |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent tailor=Theme to tree=Destination |
| 2 | **lie** | past | a mighty oak tree |  |  | there |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fell** | participle | a mighty oak tree *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | tailor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  | enough, strong *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **help** | infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 7 | **carry** | to-infinitive | me *not said here* | the tree |  | the forest |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent tree=Theme out forest=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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