---
title: The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails: and the maid, h… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails: and the maid, having groped about and found nothing, went away for a light. Who acts: thieves, wolf. 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/pg2591/25/62/)

<!-- 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/) / 62

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Tom Thumb, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails: and the maid, having groped about and found nothing, went away for a light.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thieves, wolf · **What happens:** run off, be, grope, find, go away · **To what, where:** maid, nothing

<!-- .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 (thieves, wolf), 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:pg2591:25:62
# text = The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails: and the maid, having groped about and found nothing, went away for a light.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	off	off	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	aux	_	_
19	groped	grope	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	about	about	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	away	away	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run off** | past | the thieves |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a wolf |  |  |  |  | as money's tails | tree rules |
| 3 | **grope** | gerund · perfect |  | the maid *not said here* |  |  |  | about *property* | vn rummage-35.5-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **find** | past |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 5 | **go away** | past | the thieves *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a light; away *property* | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for light=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/25/61/)
- next →: [sentence 63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/25/63/)
- ↑ back to [Tom Thumb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/25/)