---
title: ‘Now what can he want with it?’ thought Big Klaus; and he smeared so… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Now what can he want with it?’ thought Big Klaus; and he smeared some tar at the bottom, so that of whatever was measured a little should remain in it. Who acts: Klaus. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, sentence 128

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Now what can he want with it?’ thought Big Klaus; and he smeared some tar at the bottom, so that of whatever was measured a little should remain in it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Klaus · **What happens:** want, think, smear, measure, remain · **To what, where:** Big Klaus, tar, bottom, whatever, measure · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Klaus), 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:pg640:41:128
# text = ‘Now what can he want with it?’ thought Big Klaus; and he smeared some tar at the bottom, so that of whatever was measured a little should remain in it.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	obj	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	Big	Big	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	Klaus	Klaus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	smeared	smear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	tar	tar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
24	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	measured	measure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	advcl	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | can | Klaus |  |  |  | now | with measure | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | Big Klaus |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent klaus=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 3 | **smear** | past | Klaus | some tar |  | the bottom |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination-Conative»: agent=Agent tar=Theme at bottom=Destination |
| 4 | **measure** | past · passive |  | whatever |  |  |  | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: subject=Value |
| 5 | **remain** | should | Klaus *not said here* |  |  | measure |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in it=Location |

<!-- .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:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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