---
title: The thick-headed roses ought to know why, but they know nothing at a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The thick-headed roses ought to know why, but they know nothing at all; they only look at themselves and smell. Who acts: headed roses, roses. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Neighbouring Families, sentence 22

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The thick-headed roses ought to know why, but they know nothing at all; they only look at themselves and smell.

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**Who acts:** headed roses, roses · **What happens:** know, look, smell · **To what, where:** nothing, all

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Neighbouring Families. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (headed roses, roses), 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:pg27200:124:22
# text = The thick-headed roses ought to know why, but they know nothing at all; they only look at themselves and smell.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	headed	headed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	roses	rose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
6	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
14	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	13	obj	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	look	look	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	smell	smell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | ought | the headed roses |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **know** | present | roses *= rose* | nothing |  | all |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **look** | present | roses *= rose* |  |  |  |  | at roses *= rose* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at themselves=Theme |
| 4 | **smell** | present | roses *= rose* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn smell\_emission-43.3 «NP V»: agent=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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