---
title: “Do the white bees choose a queen?” asked the little boy; for he kne… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Do the white bees choose a queen?” asked the little boy; for he knew that the honey-bees always have one. Who acts: white bees, little boy, account, honey bees. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/11/37/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 1, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Do the white bees choose a queen?” asked the little boy; for he knew that the honey-bees always have one.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** white bees, little boy, account, honey bees · **What happens:** do, choose, ask, know, have · **To what, where:** queen, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (white bees, little boy, account, honey bees), 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:pg1597:11:37
# text = “Do the white bees choose a queen?” asked the little boy; for he knew that the honey-bees always have one.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	bees	bee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	choose	choose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	honey	honey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	bees	bee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
24	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	25	advmod	_	_
25	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **choose** *in a quote* | present | the white bees | a queen |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent queen=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the little boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **know** | past | account |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **have** | present | the honey bees | one |  |  |  | always *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |

<!-- .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:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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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