---
title: So Death breathed on her hands, didn't he? — Andersen's Tales, The Story of a Mothe… · tree and pragmatics
description: So Death breathed on her hands, didn't he? Test 12 · ★ of lesson 996 «Andersen's Tales, The Story of a Mother: Death carries off the child» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 12 · ★ · Andersen's Tales, The Story of a Mother: Death carries off…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So Death breathed on her hands, didn't he?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Death, he · **What happens:** breathe, not do · **To what, where:** hands

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 996 «Andersen's Tales, The Story of a Mother: Death carries off the child» of the books course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/996-pg27200-part207/#t12).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:996-pg27200-part207:t12:1
# text = So Death breathed on her hands, didn't he?
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	Death	Death	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	breathed	breathe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **breathe** | past | Death |  |  | Death's hands |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Agent on hand=Destination |
| 2 | **not** **do** | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, his touch was gentle, fam

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:996-pg27200-part207:t12:o1:1
# text = Nah, his touch was gentle, fam
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	touch	touch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	fam	fam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | his touch |  |  |  |  | gentle *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **touch** |  | his *= he* |  |  |  |  |  | nom touch «event transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, his breath was colder than ice and it made her hands go numb for hours

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:996-pg27200-part207:t12:o2:1
# text = Yeah, his breath was colder than ice and it made her hands go numb for hours
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	colder	cold	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
15	numb	numb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | his breath |  |  |  |  | than ice; cold *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | past | breath |  |  |  | hour |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | present | her hands |  |  |  |  | numb *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, his breath was warm as soup

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:996-pg27200-part207:t12:o3:1
# text = Yeah, his breath was warm as soup
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	soup	soup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | his breath |  |  |  |  | as soup; warm *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, his breath was colder than ice

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:996-pg27200-part207:t12:o4:1
# text = Yeah, his breath was colder than ice
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	colder	cold	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | his breath |  |  |  |  | than ice; cold *property* | tree rules |

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**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Andersen's Tales, The Story of a Mothe…, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/996-pg27200-part207/t11/)
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