---
title: To hang one's self is to die a mean death, and poison is not always… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: To hang one's self is to die a mean death, and poison is not always at hand, I know; but he thought of both. Who acts: poison, I, hero. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Eighteenth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Eighteenth Evening, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To hang one's self is to die a mean death, and poison is not always at hand, I know; but he thought of both.

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**Who acts:** poison, I, hero · **What happens:** hang, be, not be, know, think · **To what, where:** self, hand · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Eighteenth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poison, I, hero), 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:pg27200:109:12
# text = To hang one's self is to die a mean death, and poison is not always at hand, I know; but he thought of both.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	hang	hang	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
3	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	self	self	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	die	die	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	mean	mean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
17	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	19	advmod	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	ccomp	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hang** | to-infinitive |  | one's self |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent self=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | die *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is** | present | poison |  |  | hand |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | hero |  |  |  |  | of both | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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