---
title: Why did you leave the steak to fry, and the ale to run, and then spo… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Why did you leave the steak to fry, and the ale to run, and then spoil all the meal?’ Who acts: you, ale. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Frederick and Catherine, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Frederick and Catherine, sentence 27

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Why did you leave the steak to fry, and the ale to run, and then spoil all the meal?’

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**Who acts:** you, ale · **What happens:** leave, fry, run, spoil · **To what, where:** steak, meal

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Frederick and Catherine. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, ale), 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:pg2591:29:27
# text = Why did you leave the steak to fry, and the ale to run, and then spoil all the meal?’
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	steak	steak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	fry	fry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ale	ale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
18	spoil	spoil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
19	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	21	det:predet	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past · do-support | you | the steak |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent steak=Theme |
| 2 | **fry** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **run** | to-infinitive | the ale |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **spoil** | infinitive | the ale *not said here* | all meal |  |  | then |  | tree rules |

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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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