---
title: "Yes, it's all very well for you to sing," said the bottle neck: tha… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Yes, it's all very well for you to sing," said the bottle neck: that is, he did not really speak the words as we do, for the neck of a bottle cannot speak; but he thought them to himself in his own mind, just as people sometimes talk quietly to themselves. Who acts: linnet, you, bottle neck, that. 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bottle Neck, sentence 5

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"Yes, it's all very well for you to sing," said the bottle neck: that is, he did not really speak the words as we do, for the neck of a bottle cannot speak; but he thought them to himself in his own mind, just as people sometimes talk quietly to themselves.

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**Who acts:** linnet, you, bottle neck, that, we, neck · **What happens:** be, sing, say, not be, do, not speak · **To what, where:** words, neck, own mind, people · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bottle Neck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (linnet, you, bottle neck, that), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:13:5
# text = "Yes, it's all very well for you to sing," said the bottle neck: that is, he did not really speak the words as we do, for the neck of a bottle cannot speak; but he thought them to himself in his own mind, just as people sometimes talk quietly to themselves.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	all	all	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
9	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	sing	sing	VERB	VB	Mood=Sub|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	bottle	bottle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
24	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
26	really	really	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	parataxis	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	42	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	bottle	bottle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
40	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	42	advmod	_	_
42	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	46	punct	_	_
44	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
45	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
46	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
47	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obj	_	_
48	to	to	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	46	obl	_	_
50	in	in	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
51	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	53	nmod:poss	_	_
52	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
53	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
55	just	just	ADV	RB	_	59	advmod	_	_
56	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	59	mark	_	_
57	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	59	nsubj	_	_
58	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	59	advmod	_	_
59	talk	talk	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	conj	_	_
60	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	59	advmod	_	_
61	to	to	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
62	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	59	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | linnet |  |  |  |  | all, well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the bottle neck |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **is** | present · do-support | that |  |  |  |  | speak *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **do** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | can | the neck of a bottle |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **think** *speech: other* | past | neck | words *= word* | neck | neck's own mind |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot they=Theme |
| 8 | **talk** | present | people |  | people |  |  | quietly, sometimes *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to themselves=Co-Agent |
| 9 | **mind** |  | neck |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=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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