---
title: I must first, however, prove whether all you have told me about your… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I must first, however, prove whether all you have told me about your three things is true.’ Who acts: I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Raven, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Raven, sentence 81

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I must first, however, prove whether all you have told me about your three things is true.’

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** prove, tell, be · **To what, where:** all, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Raven. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg2591:47:81
# text = I must first, however, prove whether all you have told me about your three things is true.’
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
3	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	however	however	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prove** | must | I |  |  |  |  | first, however *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present · perfect · passive |  | all | me |  |  | about your three things | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient i=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | true *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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