---
title: The coal replied: ‘I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I ha… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The coal replied: ‘I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by sheer force, my death would have been certain,--I should have been burnt to ashes.’ Who acts: coal, I, death, my. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean, with its depen
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The coal replied: ‘I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by sheer force, my death would have been certain,--I should have been burnt to ashes.’

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**Who acts:** coal, I, death, my · **What happens:** reply, spring out, not escape, be, burnt, die · **To what, where:** fire, I

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (coal, I, death, 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:pg2591:7:5
# text = The coal replied: ‘I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by sheer force, my death would have been certain,--I should have been burnt to ashes.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	fortunately	fortunately	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	escaped	escape	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	sheer	sheer	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	force	force	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux	_	_
28	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	cop	_	_
29	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
33	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
34	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux	_	_
35	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	burnt	burnt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	parataxis	_	_
37	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the coal |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **spring out** | past | I | the fire |  |  |  | fortunately *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location fire=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **escape** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | by sheer force | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | would · perfect | my death |  |  |  |  | certain *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **burnt** | should · perfect · passive |  | I |  |  |  | to ashes | tree rules |
| 6 | **die** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: 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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