---
title: The princess asked what she meant, and she said, ‘Let me speak with… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The princess asked what she meant, and she said, ‘Let me speak with the bridegroom this night in his chamber, and I will give thee the dress.’ Who acts: princess, me, I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Lily and the Lion, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/44/58/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / [Lily and the Lion](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/44/) / 58

# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Lily and the Lion, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The princess asked what she meant, and she said, ‘Let me speak with the bridegroom this night in his chamber, and I will give thee the dress.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** princess, me, I · **What happens:** ask, mean, say, let, speak, give · **To what, where:** me, dress, thee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (princess, me, I), 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:pg2591:44:58
# text = The princess asked what she meant, and she said, ‘Let me speak with the bridegroom this night in his chamber, and I will give thee the dress.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	obj	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	bridegroom	bridegroom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	chamber	chamber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
29	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	28	iobj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	dress	dress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent what=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **mean** | past | princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **let** | infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | infinitive | me *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the bridegroom | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with bridegroom=Co-Agent |
| 6 | **give** | future | I | the dress | thee |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient dress=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/44/57/)
- next →: [sentence 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/44/59/)
- ↑ back to [Lily and the Lion](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/44/)