---
title: ‘Can you tell me,’ asked the girl, ‘if my betrothed husband lives he… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Can you tell me,’ asked the girl, ‘if my betrothed husband lives here?’ Who acts: you, ’, betrothed husband. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Robber Bridegroom, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Robber Bridegroom, sentence 23

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‘Can you tell me,’ asked the girl, ‘if my betrothed husband lives here?’

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**Who acts:** you, ’, betrothed husband · **What happens:** tell, ask, betroth, live · **To what, where:** me, girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Robber Bridegroom. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, ’, betrothed husband), 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:pg2591:24:23
# text = ‘Can you tell me,’ asked the girl, ‘if my betrothed husband lives here?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	betrothed	betroth	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	lives	live	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | can | you |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | ’ |  | the girl |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent girl=Recipient |
| 3 | **betroth** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **live** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | my betrothed husband |  |  | here |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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