---
title: I am quite sorry to see them run about as they do; and indeed it is… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I am quite sorry to see them run about as they do; and indeed it is not very decent, for they have nothing upon their backs to keep off the cold. Who acts: I, wights, turn. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Elves and the Shoemaker, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Elves and the Shoemaker, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I am quite sorry to see them run about as they do; and indeed it is not very decent, for they have nothing upon their backs to keep off the cold.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, wights, turn · **What happens:** be, see, run about, do, not be, have · **To what, where:** wights, nothing, cold

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Elves and the Shoemaker. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, wights, turn), 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:pg2591:37:18
# text = I am quite sorry to see them run about as they do; and indeed it is not very decent, for they have nothing upon their backs to keep off the cold.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	about	about	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	decent	decent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	24	obj	_	_
26	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	_
31	off	off	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	cold	cold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | wights *= wight* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **run about** | infinitive | wights *= wight* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **do** | present | wights *= wight* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is** | present | turn |  |  |  |  | decent, indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **have** | present | wights *= wight* | nothing |  |  |  | upon wights's backs | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 7 | **keep off** | to-infinitive | wights *= wight* *not said here* | the cold |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cold=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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