---
title: It would be well for us to beware, that we may not act in a similar… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It would be well for us to beware, that we may not act in a similar manner, for we can never know if we may not, in the course of time, also come into the rag chest, and be made into white paper, and then have our whole life's history printed on it, even the most secret, and be obliged to run about 
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The False Collar, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would be well for us to beware, that we may not act in a similar manner, for we can never know if we may not, in the course of time, also come into the rag chest, and be made into white paper, and then have our whole life's history printed on it, even the most secret, and be obliged to run about and tell it ourselves, just like this collar.

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**Who acts:** story, we · **What happens:** be, not act, not know, come, make, have · **To what, where:** similar manner, course, rag chest, white paper, history, story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The False Collar. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (story, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg1597:22:63
# text = It would be well for us to beware, that we may not act in a similar manner, for we can never know if we may not, in the course of time, also come into the rag chest, and be made into white paper, and then have our whole life's history printed on it, even the most secret, and be obliged to run about and tell it ourselves, just like this collar.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
4	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
5	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	beware	beware	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	act	act	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	similar	similar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	manner	manner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	also	also	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	parataxis	_	_
38	into	into	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
40	rag	rag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	compound	_	_
41	chest	chest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	aux:pass	_	_
45	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	37	parataxis	_	_
46	into	into	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
51	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	52	advmod	_	_
52	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	45	conj	_	_
53	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	55	nmod:poss	_	_
54	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	's	's	PART	POS	_	55	case	_	_
57	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obj	_	_
58	printed	print	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	57	acl	_	_
59	on	on	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
60	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	58	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	65	punct	_	_
62	even	even	ADV	RB	_	65	advmod	_	_
63	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	65	det	_	_
64	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	65	amod	_	_
65	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	69	punct	_	_
67	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	69	cc	_	_
68	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	69	aux:pass	_	_
69	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	37	conj	_	_
70	to	to	PART	TO	_	71	mark	_	_
71	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	69	xcomp	_	_
72	about	about	ADV	RB	_	71	advmod	_	_
73	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	74	cc	_	_
74	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	71	conj	_	_
75	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	74	obj	_	_
76	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	74	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
77	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	81	punct	_	_
78	just	just	ADV	RB	_	81	advmod	_	_
79	like	like	ADP	IN	_	81	case	_	_
80	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	81	det	_	_
81	collar	collar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	74	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
82	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | story |  |  |  |  | beware, well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **act** | may | we |  |  | a similar manner |  |  | vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **know** | can | we |  |  | the course of time |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **come** | infinitive |  |  |  | the rag chest |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into chest=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **make** | infinitive · passive |  |  |  | white paper |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: into paper=Product |
| 6 | **have** | present |  | our whole life's history and the most secret |  |  | then |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent history=Patient |
| 7 | **print** | participle |  | our whole life's history and the most secret *not said here* |  | story |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on it=Destination |
| 8 | **oblige** | infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: clause=Result |
| 9 | **run about** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 10 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  | story | ourselves |  |  | like this collar | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent ourselves=Recipient it=Topic |

<!-- .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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