---
title: ‘Your seeing her would have been of no use,’ said the thief, ‘if I h… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Your seeing her would have been of no use,’ said the thief, ‘if I had not taken her away from the dragon; therefore she ought to be mine.’ Who acts: Your, princess, thief, I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Four Clever Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Four Clever Brothers, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Your seeing her would have been of no use,’ said the thief, ‘if I had not taken her away from the dragon; therefore she ought to be mine.’

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**Who acts:** Your, princess, thief, I · **What happens:** see, have, say, not take away, be · **To what, where:** princess, mine · **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 (Your, princess, thief, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg2591:43:50
# text = ‘Your seeing her would have been of no use,’ said the thief, ‘if I had not taken her away from the dragon; therefore she ought to be mine.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	ccomp	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
6	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
7	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	xcomp	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	10	det	_	_
10	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	conj	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	away	away	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
29	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	cop	_	_
34	mine	my	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | would | Your | princess |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | infinitive | princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the thief |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **take away** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | I | princess |  |  |  | from the dragon; away *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent she=Theme from dragon=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **is a** | to-infinitive | the thief *not said here* | mine |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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