---
title: But the prince begged very hard, and said, ‘Only tell me what it is,… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the prince begged very hard, and said, ‘Only tell me what it is, and do not think I shall be angry, for I will forgive you.’ Who acts: prince, last, I. 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 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the prince begged very hard, and said, ‘Only tell me what it is, and do not think I shall be angry, for I will forgive you.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, last, I · **What happens:** beg, say, tell, be, not think, forgive · **To what, where:** me, you · **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, last, 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:pg2591:49:63
# text = But the prince begged very hard, and said, ‘Only tell me what it is, and do not think I shall be angry, for I will forgive you.’
1	But	but	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	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	obj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	think	think	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
26	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	forgive	forgive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the prince |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient what=Topic |
| 4 | **be** | present | last |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | infinitive · do-support |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | shall | I |  |  |  |  | angry *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **forgive** | future | I | you |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=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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