---
title: The poor man thought he would try to better himself; so, pulling off… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor man thought he would try to better himself; so, pulling off his red coat, he became a gardener, and dug his ground well, and sowed turnips. Who acts: poor man, man. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Turnip, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Turnip, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The poor man thought he would try to better himself; so, pulling off his red coat, he became a gardener, and dug his ground well, and sowed turnips.

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**Who acts:** poor man, man · **What happens:** think, try, better, pull off, become, dig · **To what, where:** man, red coat, gardener, ground, turnips · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Turnip. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor man, man), 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:pg2591:39:2
# text = The poor man thought he would try to better himself; so, pulling off his red coat, he became a gardener, and dug his ground well, and sowed turnips.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	better	better	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	pulling	pull	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
15	off	off	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	gardener	gardener	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	dug	dig	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	sowed	sow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
33	turnips	turnip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the poor man |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | would | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **better** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | man |  |  |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot himself=Theme |
| 4 | **pull off** | gerund | the poor man *not said here* | man's red coat |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent coat=Eventuality |
| 5 | **become** | past | man | a gardener |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **dig** | past |  | man's ground |  |  |  | well *property* | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent ground=Theme |
| 7 | **sow** | past |  | turnips |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent turnip=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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