---
title: The two elder brothers would have pulled it down, in order to see ho… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The two elder brothers would have pulled it down, in order to see how the poor ants in their fright would run about and carry off their eggs. Who acts: poor ants, brother. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Queen Bee, 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/pg2591/36/4/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Queen Bee](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/36/) / 4

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Queen Bee, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The two elder brothers would have pulled it down, in order to see how the poor ants in their fright would run about and carry off their eggs.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor ants, brother · **What happens:** pull down, see, run about, carry off, fright · **To what, where:** two elder brothers, eggs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Queen Bee. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor ants, brother), 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:pg2591:36:4
# text = The two elder brothers would have pulled it down, in order to see how the poor ants in their fright would run about and carry off their eggs.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
3	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
7	pulled	pull	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	down	down	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	14	mark	_	_
12	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	fixed	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
15	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
24	about	about	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
27	off	off	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull down** | would · perfect · passive |  | the two elder brothers |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: subject=Theme it=Result |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **run about** | would | the poor ants in brother's fright |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **carry off** | infinitive | the poor ants in brother's fright *not said here* | brother's eggs |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Theme |
| 5 | **fright** |  | brother |  |  |  |  |  | nom fright «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/36/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/36/5/)
- ↑ back to [The Queen Bee](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/36/)