---
title: And the prince said, ‘I am going in search of the Water of Life, bec… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And the prince said, ‘I am going in search of the Water of Life, because my father is ill, and like to die: can you help me? Who acts: prince, I, father, you. 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 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the prince said, ‘I am going in search of the Water of Life, because my father is ill, and like to die: can you help me?

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**Who acts:** prince, I, father, you · **What happens:** say, go, be, like, die, help · **To what, where:** search, me, Water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (prince, I, father, you), 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:pg2591:49:24
# text = And the prince said, ‘I am going in search of the Water of Life, because my father is ill, and like to die: can you help me?
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	ccomp	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Water	Water	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Life	Life	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
29	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
32	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go** | present · progressive | I |  |  | search of the Water of Life |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in search=Location |
| 3 | **is** | present | my father |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **like** | present | the prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **die** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 6 | **help** | can | you |  | me |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary |
| 7 | **search** |  |  | the Water of Life |  |  |  |  | nom search «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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