---
title: ‘No,’ said they; ‘not unless you undertake not to say, “Heads off!”… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘No,’ said they; ‘not unless you undertake not to say, “Heads off!” for if you do we are all dead men.’ Who acts: sword, you, we. 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 73

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘No,’ said they; ‘not unless you undertake not to say, “Heads off!” for if you do we are all dead men.’

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**Who acts:** sword, you, we · **What happens:** say, not undertake, not say, do, be · **To what, where:** Heads, dead men · **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 (sword, you, we), 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:pg2591:51:73
# text = ‘No,’ said they; ‘not unless you undertake not to say, “Heads off!” for if you do we are all dead men.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
8	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
10	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	undertake	undertake	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
19	off	off	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
22	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
26	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
27	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
28	all	all	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | sword |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **undertake** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | Heads |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent head=Topic |
| 4 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present | we | dead men |  |  |  |  | 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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