---
title: The king was at first very unwilling to let him go, but at last yiel… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The king was at first very unwilling to let him go, but at last yielded to his wish. Who acts: king. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Water of Life, sentence 17

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The king was at first very unwilling to let him go, but at last yielded to his wish.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** be, let, go, yield, wish · **To what, where:** king, last

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), 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:pg2591:49:17
# text = The king was at first very unwilling to let him go, but at last yielded to his wish.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	obl	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	unwilling	unwilling	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	obl	_	_
16	yielded	yield	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the king |  |  |  |  | unwilling *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **let** | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* | king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **yield** | participle | the king *not said here* |  |  | last |  | to king's wish | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to wish=Theme |
| 5 | **wish** |  | king |  |  |  |  |  | nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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