---
title: "They can do that too," replied grandpapa; "and if the public demand… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "They can do that too," replied grandpapa; "and if the public demands it, they will talk in that way. Who acts: boots, grandpapa, public. 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 64

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"They can do that too," replied grandpapa; "and if the public demands it, they will talk in that way.

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**Who acts:** boots, grandpapa, public · **What happens:** do, reply, demand, talk · **To what, where:** that, ', 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 (boots, grandpapa, public), 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:pg27200:127:64
# text = "They can do that too," replied grandpapa; "and if the public demands it, they will talk in that way.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obj	_	_
6	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	grandpapa	grandpapa	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	public	public	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	demands	demand	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
25	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *in a quote* | can | boots *= boot* | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | grandpapa |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **demand** *speech: request* *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | the public | ' |  |  |  |  | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Precondition |
| 4 | **talk** *in a quote* | future | boots *= boot* |  |  | that way |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «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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