---
title: Or was his sin so great that, if he dared utter it, the Celestial Em… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Or was his sin so great that, if he dared utter it, the Celestial Empire would punish it with death? Who acts: sin, occupation, Celestial Empire. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-sixth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twenty-sixth Evening, sentence 16

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Or was his sin so great that, if he dared utter it, the Celestial Empire would punish it with death?

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**Who acts:** sin, occupation, Celestial Empire · **What happens:** be, dare, punish · **To what, where:** sin

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-sixth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sin, occupation, Celestial Empire), 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:pg27200:117:16
# text = Or was his sin so great that, if he dared utter it, the Celestial Empire would punish it with death?
1	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	sin	sin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
12	utter	utt	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	11	advmod	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	Celestial	Celestial	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	Empire	Empire	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	punish	punish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	csubj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | occupation's sin |  |  |  |  | great *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **dare** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | occupation |  |  |  |  | utt *property* | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **punish** | would | the Celestial Empire | sin |  |  |  | with death | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP PP.theme PP.attribute»: agent=Agent it=Patient with death=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:** «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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