---
title: But the cat, not understanding this joke, sprang at his face, and sp… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the cat, not understanding this joke, sprang at his face, and spat, and scratched at him. Who acts: cat. 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 43

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But the cat, not understanding this joke, sprang at his face, and spat, and scratched at him.

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**Who acts:** cat · **What happens:** not understand, spring, scratch · **To what, where:** joke, spat, face

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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 (cat), 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:pg2591:5:43
# text = But the cat, not understanding this joke, sprang at his face, and spat, and scratched at him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	understanding	understand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	sprang	spring	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	conj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	spat	spat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	scratched	scratch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **understand** | gerund | the cat *not said here* | this joke |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer joke=Stimulus |
| 2 | **spring** | gerund | the cat *not said here* | spat |  | cat's face |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at face=Trajectory |
| 3 | **scratch** | past | the cat |  |  |  |  | at cock | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at he=Patient |

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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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