---
title: So the woodman at last said he would sell Tom to the strangers for a… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So the woodman at last said he would sell Tom to the strangers for a large piece of gold, and they paid the price. Who acts: woodman, strangers. 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 28

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So the woodman at last said he would sell Tom to the strangers for a large piece of gold, and they paid the price.

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**Who acts:** woodman, strangers · **What happens:** say, sell, pay · **To what, where:** Tom, strangers, price · **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 (woodman, strangers), 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:pg2591:25:28
# text = So the woodman at last said he would sell Tom to the strangers for a large piece of gold, and they paid the price.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	woodman	woodman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
10	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	paid	pay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the woodman at last |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **sell** | would | woodman | Tom | the strangers |  |  | for a large piece of gold | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.asset»: agent=Agent tom=Theme to stranger=Recipient for piece=Asset |
| 3 | **pay** | past | strangers *= stranger* | the price |  |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent price=Asset |

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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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