---
title: If it were ever so small--nay, if it were no bigger than my thumb--I… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: If it were ever so small--nay, if it were no bigger than my thumb--I should be very happy, and love it dearly.’ Who acts: wheel, I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/25/4/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / [Tom Thumb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/25/) / 4

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Tom Thumb, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If it were ever so small--nay, if it were no bigger than my thumb--I should be very happy, and love it dearly.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wheel, I · **What happens:** be, not be, love · **To what, where:** wheel

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (wheel, 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:pg2591:25:4
# text = If it were ever so small--nay, if it were no bigger than my thumb--I should be very happy, and love it dearly.’
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	6	advmod	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	nay	nay	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	no	no	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	parataxis	_	_
15	than	than	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	thumb	thumb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
22	very	very	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	love	love	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	dearly	dearly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | wheel |  |  |  | ever | small *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | wheel |  |  |  |  | than my thumb; big *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | should | I |  |  |  |  | happy *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **love** | present |  | wheel |  |  |  | dearly *property* | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/25/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/25/5/)
- ↑ back to [Tom Thumb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/25/)