---
title: I have no reason to sing, nor could I sing now if I were ever so hap… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I have no reason to sing, nor could I sing now if I were ever so happy; but when I was a whole bottle, and they rubbed me with a cork, didn't I sing then? Who acts: I, limbs. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bottle Neck, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bottle Neck, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I have no reason to sing, nor could I sing now if I were ever so happy; but when I was a whole bottle, and they rubbed me with a cork, didn't I sing then?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, limbs · **What happens:** have, sing, be, rub, not sing · **To what, where:** reason, whole bottle, me

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, limbs), 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:pg27200:13:8
# text = I have no reason to sing, nor could I sing now if I were ever so happy; but when I was a whole bottle, and they rubbed me with a cork, didn't I sing then?
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	11	cc	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
12	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	18	advmod	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	bottle	bottle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	rubbed	rub	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
31	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	cork	cork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	39	advmod	_	_
38	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
40	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	39	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | I | no reason |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Patient |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | no reason *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | could | I |  |  |  | now |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
| 4 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  | ever | happy *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | past | I | a whole bottle |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **rub** | past | limbs *= limb* |  | me |  |  | with a cork | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent i=Destination with cork=Theme |
| 7 | **not** **sing** *speech: express* | past · do-support | I |  |  |  | then |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |

<!-- .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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