---
title: It was covered, however, and even the servant did not know what was… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was covered, however, and even the servant did not know what was in it, neither did anyone know, for the king never took off the cover to eat of it until he was quite alone. Who acts: servant, anyone, king. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The White Snake, with its dependency t
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The White Snake, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was covered, however, and even the servant did not know what was in it, neither did anyone know, for the king never took off the cover to eat of it until he was quite alone.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** servant, anyone, king · **What happens:** cover, not know, be, do, know, not take off · **To what, where:** servant, table, cover · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, anyone, king), 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:pg2591:34:4
# text = It was covered, however, and even the servant did not know what was in it, neither did anyone know, for the king never took off the cover to eat of it until he was quite alone.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	however	however	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
8	even	even	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	20	cc:preconj	_	_
20	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
21	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	22	nsubj	_	_
22	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
29	off	off	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	cover	cover	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	_
36	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
39	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	33	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cover** | past · passive |  | servant |  |  |  | however *property* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | the servant |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  | table |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **know** | infinitive | anyone |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **not** **take off** | past | the king | the cover |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cover=Theme |
| 7 | **eat** | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of servant | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent of it=Source |
| 8 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  |  | alone *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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