---
title: So he looked up, and said to the second son, ‘At the top of this tre… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So he looked up, and said to the second son, ‘At the top of this tree there is a chaffinch’s nest; tell me how many eggs there are in it.’ Who acts: father, nest, many eggs. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Four Clever Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Four Clever Brothers, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So he looked up, and said to the second son, ‘At the top of this tree there is a chaffinch’s nest; tell me how many eggs there are in it.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** father, nest, many eggs · **What happens:** look up, say, be, tell · **To what, where:** second son, top, tree, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Four Clever Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, nest, many eggs), 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:pg2591:43:25
# text = So he looked up, and said to the second son, ‘At the top of this tree there is a chaffinch’s nest; tell me how many eggs there are in it.’
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	11	amod	_	_
11	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	At	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	21	expl	_	_
21	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	chaffinch	chaffinch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
28	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	iobj	_	_
29	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
30	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
32	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	33	expl	_	_
33	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	ccomp	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look up** | past | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | father *not said here* |  | the second son | the top of this tree |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to son=Recipient |
| 3 | **be** | present | a chaffinch's nest | this tree *not said here* |  | there |  |  | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot tree=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | father *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **does** | present | many eggs |  |  | tree; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in it=Location |

<!-- .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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