---
title: “Were I not a Raven, I should have taken the Princess myself, althou… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Were I not a Raven, I should have taken the Princess myself, although I am promised. Who acts: little Gerda. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/13/62/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 3, sentence 62

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“Were I not a Raven, I should have taken the Princess myself, although I am promised.

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**Who acts:** little Gerda · **What happens:** not raven, take, promise · **To what, where:** Raven, little Gerda

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little Gerda), 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:pg1597:13:62
# text = “Were I not a Raven, I should have taken the Princess myself, although I am promised.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Were	were	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux	_	_
11	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	11	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **raven** *in a quote* |  | little Gerda *= gerda* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** *in a quote* | should · perfect · passive |  | a Raven |  |  |  | myself *obl:unmarked* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme princess=Destination |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* *in a quote* | present · passive |  | little Gerda *= gerda* |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme |

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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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