---
title: The sexton thought: ‘He can’t mean to be as bad as his words,’ utter… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The sexton thought: ‘He can’t mean to be as bad as his words,’ uttered no sound and stood as if he were made of stone. Who acts: sexton. 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 tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 28

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The sexton thought: ‘He can’t mean to be as bad as his words,’ uttered no sound and stood as if he were made of stone.

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**Who acts:** sexton · **What happens:** think, not mean, be, utter, stand, make · **To what, where:** sound, sexton · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (sexton), 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:pg2591:57:28
# text = The sexton thought: ‘He can’t mean to be as bad as his words,’ uttered no sound and stood as if he were made of stone.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sexton	sexton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
12	as	as	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	ccomp	_	_
14	as	as	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
19	uttered	utter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	ccomp	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the sexton |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **mean** | can | sexton |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | as sexton's words; bad *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **utter** *speech: other* | past |  | no sound |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sound=Topic |
| 5 | **stand** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **make** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | sexton |  |  |  | of stone | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 7 | **word** |  | sexton |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=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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