---
title: “Yes, if you can tell me exactly--for I must know that first--how de… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Yes, if you can tell me exactly--for I must know that first--how deep the gutter is in the little street opposite, that you pass through in going to school.” Who acts: you, I, gutter. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elderbush, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Yes, if you can tell me exactly--for I must know that first--how deep the gutter is in the little street opposite, that you pass through in going to school.”

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**Who acts:** you, I, gutter · **What happens:** tell, know, be, pass through, go · **To what, where:** me, little street opposite, school · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, I, gutter), 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:pg1597:17:10
# text = “Yes, if you can tell me exactly--for I must know that first--how deep the gutter is in the little street opposite, that you pass through in going to school.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	_
9	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
15	that	that	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
19	deep	deep	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	gutter	gutter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	opposite	opposite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	pass	pass	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
32	through	through	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
34	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	school	school	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | you |  | me |  |  | exactly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **know** *in a quote* | must | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the gutter |  |  | the little street opposite |  | deep *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **pass through** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **go** *in a quote* | gerund | you *not said here* |  |  | school |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to school=Initial\_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:** «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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