---
title: ‘No,’ said the moon, ‘I cannot help thee but I will give thee an egg… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘No,’ said the moon, ‘I cannot help thee but I will give thee an egg--break it when need comes.’ Who acts: I, need. 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 42

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‘No,’ said the moon, ‘I cannot help thee but I will give thee an egg--break it when need comes.’

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**Who acts:** I, need · **What happens:** say, not help, give, break, come · **To what, where:** moon, thee, egg · **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 (I, need), 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:pg2591:44:42
# text = ‘No,’ said the moon, ‘I cannot help thee but I will give thee an egg--break it when need comes.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	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	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
14	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	obj	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
19	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	iobj	_	_
20	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
26	need	need	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the moon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **help** | can | I | thee |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thou=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **give** | future | I | a egg | thee |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient egg=Theme |
| 4 | **break** | infinitive | I *not said here* | moon |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |
| 5 | **come** | present | need |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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