---
title: ‘Ah!’ said the young man, ‘that would be a great thing, but how can… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Ah!’ said the young man, ‘that would be a great thing, but how can you contrive it?’ Who acts: that, you. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Golden Bird, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Golden Bird, sentence 52

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‘Ah!’ said the young man, ‘that would be a great thing, but how can you contrive it?’

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**Who acts:** that, you · **What happens:** say, be, contrive · **To what, where:** young man, thing · **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 (that, 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:pg2591:2:52
# text = ‘Ah!’ said the young man, ‘that would be a great thing, but how can you contrive it?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	‘	‘	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
20	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	contrive	contrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the young man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | would | that |  |  |  |  | ‘ a great thing | tree rules |
| 3 | **contrive** | can | you | thing |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Result |

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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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