---
title: But he was thankful to the fox, and did not attempt his life as his… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But he was thankful to the fox, and did not attempt his life as his brothers had done; so the fox said, ‘Sit upon my tail, and you will travel faster.’ Who acts: son, brothers, fox, you. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Golden Bird, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Golden Bird, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But he was thankful to the fox, and did not attempt his life as his brothers had done; so the fox said, ‘Sit upon my tail, and you will travel faster.’

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**Who acts:** son, brothers, fox, you · **What happens:** be, not attempt, do, say, sit, travel · **To what, where:** life, tail · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Golden Bird. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, brothers, fox, you), 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:pg2591:2:22
# text = But he was thankful to the fox, and did not attempt his life as his brothers had done; so the fox said, ‘Sit upon my tail, and you will travel faster.’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	thankful	thankful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	attempt	attempt	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	ccomp	_	_
28	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	travel	travel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
36	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | son |  |  |  |  | to the fox; thankful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **attempt** | past · do-support |  | son's life |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Eventuality |
| 3 | **do** | past · perfect | son's brothers |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **sit** | infinitive |  |  |  | my tail |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon tail=Location |
| 6 | **travel** | future | you |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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