---
title: "But they ought to speak in verses," said Anna, "for I've heard that… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "But they ought to speak in verses," said Anna, "for I've heard that's the most charming way of all." Who acts: Anna, that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, In the Nursery, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, In the Nursery, sentence 63

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"But they ought to speak in verses," said Anna, "for I've heard that's the most charming way of all."

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**Who acts:** Anna, that · **What happens:** speak, say, hear, charm, be · **To what, where:** verses, charming way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, In the Nursery. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Anna, that), 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:pg27200:127:63
# text = "But they ought to speak in verses," said Anna, "for I've heard that's the most charming way of all."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	verses	verse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	Anna	Anna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	've	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	23	advmod	_	_
23	charming	charm	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	amod	_	_
24	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | ought |  |  |  | verses |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Anna |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **hear** *in a quote* | present · perfect | Anna |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **charm** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that | the charming way |  |  |  | of all | tree rules |

<!-- .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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