---
title: The princess begged and prayed; but the king said, ‘I have sworn to… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The princess begged and prayed; but the king said, ‘I have sworn to give you to the first comer, and I will keep my word.’ Who acts: princess, king, I, my. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, King Grisly-beard, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, King Grisly-beard, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The princess begged and prayed; but the king said, ‘I have sworn to give you to the first comer, and I will keep my word.’

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**Who acts:** princess, king, I, my · **What happens:** beg, pray, say, swear, give, keep · **To what, where:** you, word · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, King Grisly-beard. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (princess, king, I, my), 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:pg2591:58:17
# text = The princess begged and prayed; but the king said, ‘I have sworn to give you to the first comer, and I will keep my word.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	sworn	swear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	amod	_	_
22	comer	comer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
28	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **pray** | past | the princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **swear** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **give** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | you |  |  | to the first comer | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Theme to comer=Recipient |
| 6 | **keep** | future | I | my word |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 7 | **word** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | 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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