---
title: ‘That may never be,’ thought the miller’s daughter: and as she knew… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘That may never be,’ thought the miller’s daughter: and as she knew no other way to get her task done, she said she would do what he asked. Who acts: That, daughter, task, man. 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 132

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘That may never be,’ thought the miller’s daughter: and as she knew no other way to get her task done, she said she would do what he asked.

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**Who acts:** That, daughter, task, man · **What happens:** not be, think, know, get, do, say · **To what, where:** daughter, other way, task · **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 (That, daughter, task, man), 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:pg2591:25:132
# text = ‘That may never be,’ thought the miller’s daughter: and as she knew no other way to get her task done, she said she would do what he asked.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	miller	miller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
19	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
27	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	ccomp	_	_
32	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	34	obj	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **be** | may | That |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | the miller's daughter |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent daughter=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 3 | **know** | past | daughter | no other way |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer way=Stimulus |
| 4 | **get** | to-infinitive | daughter *not said here* | daughter's task |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **do** | participle | daughter's task *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | daughter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **do** | would | daughter |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Recipient |
| 9 | **task** |  | daughter |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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