---
title: The servant at once seized her by the neck, carried her to the kitch… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The servant at once seized her by the neck, carried her to the kitchen, and said to the cook: ‘Here is a fine duck; pray, kill her.’ Who acts: servant, fine duck. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The White Snake, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The White Snake, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The servant at once seized her by the neck, carried her to the kitchen, and said to the cook: ‘Here is a fine duck; pray, kill her.’

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**Who acts:** servant, fine duck · **What happens:** seize, carry, say, be, pray, kill · **To what, where:** queen, kitchen, cook, fine duck · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The White Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servant, fine duck), 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:pg2591:34:18
# text = The servant at once seized her by the neck, carried her to the kitchen, and said to the cook: ‘Here is a fine duck; pray, kill her.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
3	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	advmod	_	_
5	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl	_	_
6	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	cook	cook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
23	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	Here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	ccomp	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
30	pray	pray	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
33	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | the servant *not said here* | queen |  |  |  | by the neck; once *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 2 | **carry** | past | the servant | queen |  | the kitchen |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent she=Theme to kitchen=Destination |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a fine duck *not said here* |  | the cook |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to cook=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** | present |  | a fine duck |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **pray** | infinitive | the servant *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 6 | **kill** | infinitive | the servant *not said here* | queen |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |

<!-- .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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