---
title: "Oh, we are very willing to do so, but we cannot," said Hjalmar's le… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Oh, we are very willing to do so, but we cannot," said Hjalmar's letters; "we are so wretchedly made." Who acts: we, letters, Hjalmar. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Oh, we are very willing to do so, but we cannot," said Hjalmar's letters; "we are so wretchedly made."

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**Who acts:** we, letters, Hjalmar · **What happens:** be, do, say, make, letter · **To what, where:** we · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, letters, Hjalmar), 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:pg27200:134:27
# text = "Oh, we are very willing to do so, but we cannot," said Hjalmar's letters; "we are so wretchedly made."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	willing	willing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	Hjalmar	Hjalmar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	wretchedly	wretchedly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | can · present | we |  |  |  |  | willing *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Hjalmar's letters |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | we |  |  |  | wretchedly *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 5 | **letter** |  | Hjalmar |  |  |  |  |  | nom letter «communication 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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