---
title: Then the servant was greatly frightened, and said, ‘It may perhaps b… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the servant was greatly frightened, and said, ‘It may perhaps be only a cat or a dog.’ Who acts: servant. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Lily and the Lion, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Lily and the Lion, sentence 13

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Then the servant was greatly frightened, and said, ‘It may perhaps be only a cat or a dog.’

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**Who acts:** servant · **What happens:** frighten, say, ‘, be · **To what, where:** servant, cat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Lily and the Lion. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servant), 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:pg2591:44:13
# text = Then the servant was greatly frightened, and said, ‘It may perhaps be only a cat or a dog.’
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
5	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	‘	‘	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
13	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
14	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
16	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **frighten** | past · passive |  | the servant |  |  | then | greatly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **‘** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | may | servant | a cat or a dog |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | tree rules |

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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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