---
title: They were still not safe; for he was such a great beast that in his… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They were still not safe; for he was such a great beast that in his fall he overset the boat, and they had to swim in the open sea upon a few planks. Who acts: brothers, beast. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Four Clever Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Four Clever Brothers, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were still not safe; for he was such a great beast that in his fall he overset the boat, and they had to swim in the open sea upon a few planks.

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**Who acts:** brothers, beast · **What happens:** not be, be, overset, have, swim · **To what, where:** great beast, fall, open sea

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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 (brothers, beast), 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:pg2591:43:46
# text = They were still not safe; for he was such a great beast that in his fall he overset the boat, and they had to swim in the open sea upon a few planks.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
10	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	13	det:predet	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	fall	fall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	overset	overset	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
32	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	planks	plank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  | still | safe *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | beast |  |  |  |  | for such great beast | tree rules |
| 3 | **overset** | past | beast | such great beast |  | beast's fall |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | past | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **swim** | to-infinitive | brothers *= brother* *not said here* |  |  | the open sea |  | upon a few planks | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sea=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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