---
title: I am old, and you are old, but we may live for each other just the s… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I am old, and you are old, but we may live for each other just the same; as to marrying--no; don't let us appear ridiculous at our age." Who acts: I, you, we, us. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Butterfly, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/15/42/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Butterfly](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/15/) / 42

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Butterfly, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I am old, and you are old, but we may live for each other just the same; as to marrying--no; don't let us appear ridiculous at our age."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you, we, us · **What happens:** be, live, marry, not let, appear · **To what, where:** us

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Butterfly. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you, we, us), 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:pg27200:15:42
# text = I am old, and you are old, but we may live for each other just the same; as to marrying--no; don't let us appear ridiculous at our age."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	13	obl	_	_
16	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	fixed	_	_
17	just	just	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	marrying	marry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	23	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	do	do	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
30	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	appear	appear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	ridiculous	ridiculous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	xcomp	_	_
33	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | you |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **live** | may | we |  |  |  |  | for each | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **marry** | gerund | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **let** | infinitive · do-support | we *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **appear** | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  |  | ridiculous *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/15/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/15/43/)
- ↑ back to [The Butterfly](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/15/)