---
title: If I did not take pity on you and save you, you would be lost.’ — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: If I did not take pity on you and save you, you would be lost.’ Who acts: I. 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 29

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If I did not take pity on you and save you, you would be lost.’

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** not take, save, lose · **To what, where:** pity, you

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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 (I), 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:pg2591:24:29
# text = If I did not take pity on you and save you, you would be lost.’
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
6	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **take** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · do-support | I | pity |  |  |  | on you | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent pity=Theme on you=Destination |
| 2 | **save** | infinitive | I *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 3 | **lose** | would · passive |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |

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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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