---
title: ‘Who knows but I may?’ said the little man: ‘tell me what ails you,… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Who knows but I may?’ said the little man: ‘tell me what ails you, and perhaps you will find I may be of some use.’ Who acts: little man, you, I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The King of the Golden Mountain, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The King of the Golden Mountain, sentence 7

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‘Who knows but I may?’ said the little man: ‘tell me what ails you, and perhaps you will find I may be of some use.’

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**Who acts:** little man, you, I · **What happens:** know, say, tell, ail, find, be · **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 King of the Golden Mountain. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little man, you, I), 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:pg2591:51:7
# text = ‘Who knows but I may?’ said the little man: ‘tell me what ails you, and perhaps you will find I may be of some use.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
4	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
16	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	nsubj	_	_
18	ails	ail	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	parataxis	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
27	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	nsubj	_	_
31	use	use	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the little man |  |  |  |  |  | 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 what S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **ail** | present |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn pain-40.8.1 «NP V NP.experiencer»: agent=Patient you=Experiencer |
| 5 | **find** | future | you |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | may | I |  |  |  |  | use *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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