---
title: ‘Never mind that, father,’ said Tom; ‘if my mother will only harness… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Never mind that, father,’ said Tom; ‘if my mother will only harness the horse, I will get into his ear and tell him which way to go.’ Who acts: Tom, mother, I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Tom Thumb, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Never mind that, father,’ said Tom; ‘if my mother will only harness the horse, I will get into his ear and tell him which way to go.’

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**Who acts:** Tom, mother, I · **What happens:** not mind, say, harness, get, tell, go · **To what, where:** that, horse, ear, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Tom Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tom, mother, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2591:25:13
# text = ‘Never mind that, father,’ said Tom; ‘if my mother will only harness the horse, I will get into his ear and tell him which way to go.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	mind	mind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	harness	harness	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	parataxis	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	iobj	_	_
31	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	32	det	_	_
32	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **mind** | infinitive |  | that |  |  |  | father *vocative* | vn caring-75.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Tom |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **harness** *a condition, not said to happen* | future | my mother |  | the horse |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent horse=Destination |
| 4 | **get** | future | I |  |  | Tom's ear |  |  | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into ear=Destination |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | I *not said here* | which way | horse |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient way=Topic |
| 6 | **go** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | which way *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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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