---
title: It is of no use asking the flowers; they only know their own old rhy… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It is of no use asking the flowers; they only know their own old rhymes, and can tell me nothing.” Who acts: gold, use, flowers. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 2, sentence 131

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It is of no use asking the flowers; they only know their own old rhymes, and can tell me nothing.”

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**Who acts:** gold, use, flowers · **What happens:** be, ask, know, tell, rhyme · **To what, where:** flowers, own old rhymes, nothing, me · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gold, use, flowers), 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:pg1597:12:131
# text = It is of no use asking the flowers; they only know their own old rhymes, and can tell me nothing.”
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
14	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	rhymes	rhyme	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | gold |  |  |  |  | of no use | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund | no use *not said here* | the flowers |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent flower=Recipient |
| 3 | **know** | present | flowers *= flower* | flowers's own old rhymes |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer rhyme=Stimulus |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | can |  | nothing | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient nothing=Topic |
| 5 | **rhyme** |  | flowers *= flower* |  |  |  |  |  | nom rhyme «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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