---
title: ‘What an odd thing that is!’ said one: ‘there is a cart going along,… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What an odd thing that is!’ said one: ‘there is a cart going along, and I hear a carter talking to the horse, but yet I can see no one.’ Who acts: cart, I, carter. 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 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘What an odd thing that is!’ said one: ‘there is a cart going along, and I hear a carter talking to the horse, but yet I can see no one.’

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**Who acts:** cart, I, carter · **What happens:** be, say, go along, hear, talk, see · **To what, where:** that, carter, one · **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 (cart, I, carter), 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:pg2591:25:17
# text = ‘What an odd thing that is!’ said one: ‘there is a cart going along, and I hear a carter talking to the horse, but yet I can see no one.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	odd	odd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	obj	_	_
7	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
15	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	cart	cart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
18	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	along	along	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	hear	hear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	carter	carter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
36	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	37	det	_	_
37	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | that |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | present | a cart |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **go along** | gerund | a cart *not said here* |  |  |  |  | along *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **hear** | present | I | a carter |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer carter=Stimulus |
| 6 | **talk** | gerund | a carter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the horse | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to horse=Co-Agent |
| 7 | **see** | can | I | no one |  |  | yet |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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