---
title: ‘If that be the case,’ said the ass, ‘we had better change our quart… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If that be the case,’ said the ass, ‘we had better change our quarters, for our lodging is not the best in the world!’ Who acts: that, we, lodging. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Travelling Musicians, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Travelling Musicians, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘If that be the case,’ said the ass, ‘we had better change our quarters, for our lodging is not the best in the world!’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** that, we, lodging · **What happens:** be, say, have, not be · **To what, where:** case, ass, better change, world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Travelling Musicians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (that, we, lodging), 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:pg2591:5:25
# text = ‘If that be the case,’ said the ass, ‘we had better change our quarters, for our lodging is not the best in the world!’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	amod	_	_
17	change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	quarters	quarter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
22	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	lodging	lodging	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	parataxis	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | infinitive | that | the case |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the ass |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent ass=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | past | we | better change |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent change=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **is** | present | our lodging |  |  | the world |  | good *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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