---
title: But when he saw it he could not deny himself the pleasure of tasting… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But when he saw it he could not deny himself the pleasure of tasting it, so he cut of a little bit and put it into his mouth. Who acts: king, pleasure. 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 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when he saw it he could not deny himself the pleasure of tasting it, so he cut of a little bit and put it into his mouth.

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**Who acts:** king, pleasure · **What happens:** see, not deny, taste, cut, put · **To what, where:** cover, king, mouth · **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 (king, pleasure), 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:pg2591:34:7
# text = But when he saw it he could not deny himself the pleasure of tasting it, so he cut of a little bit and put it into his mouth.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	deny	deny	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
10	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	obj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	tasting	taste	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | king | cover |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **deny** | could | king | king |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme pleasure=Eventuality |
| 3 | **taste** | gerund | the pleasure *not said here* | cover |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme it=Attribute |
| 4 | **cut** | past | king |  |  |  |  | of a little bit | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme of bit=Location |
| 5 | **put** | infinitive | king *not said here* | cover |  | king's mouth |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=Goal |

<!-- .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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