---
title: ‘Well, father,’ he replied, ‘I am quite willing to learn something--… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Well, father,’ he replied, ‘I am quite willing to learn something--indeed, if it could but be managed, I should like to learn how to shudder. Who acts: father, I. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was, with its dependency tr
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Well, father,’ he replied, ‘I am quite willing to learn something--indeed, if it could but be managed, I should like to learn how to shudder.

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**Who acts:** father, I · **What happens:** reply, be, learn, manage, like · **To what, where:** something, salt

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, 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:pg2591:57:10
# text = ‘Well, father,’ he replied, ‘I am quite willing to learn something--indeed, if it could but be managed, I should like to learn how to shudder.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	willing	willing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	managed	manage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	TO	_	35	case	_	_
35	shudder	shudder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | willing *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **learn** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | something |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Topic |
| 4 | **manage** *a condition, not said to happen* | could · passive |  | salt |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **like** | should | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **learn** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to shudder | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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