---
title: ‘Now,’ said the father to the eldest son, ‘take away the eggs withou… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Now,’ said the father to the eldest son, ‘take away the eggs without letting the bird that is sitting upon them and hatching them know anything of what you are doing.’ Who acts: bird, you. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Four Clever Brothers, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Four Clever Brothers, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Now,’ said the father to the eldest son, ‘take away the eggs without letting the bird that is sitting upon them and hatching them know anything of what you are doing.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bird, you · **What happens:** say, take away, let, sit, hatch, know · **To what, where:** father, eggs, bird, sons, anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (bird, you), 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:pg2591:43:27
# text = ‘Now,’ said the father to the eldest son, ‘take away the eggs without letting the bird that is sitting upon them and hatching them know anything of what you are doing.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	amod	_	_
11	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
15	away	away	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	letting	let	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	hatching	hatch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	conj	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	30	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	31	nmod	_	_
34	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the father |  |  | now | to the eldest son | tree rules |
| 2 | **take away** | infinitive |  | the eggs |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Theme |
| 3 | **let** | gerund |  | the bird |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme |
| 4 | **sit** | present · progressive | the bird |  |  |  |  | upon sons *= son* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon they=Location |
| 5 | **hatch** | gerund |  | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **know** | infinitive |  | anything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |
| 7 | **do** | present · progressive | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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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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