---
title: Lovers pluck off the leaves, and as they pluck each leaf, they ask a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Lovers pluck off the leaves, and as they pluck each leaf, they ask a question about their lovers; thus: "Does he or she love me?--Ardently? Who acts: Lovers, French. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Butterfly, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Butterfly, sentence 5

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Lovers pluck off the leaves, and as they pluck each leaf, they ask a question about their lovers; thus: "Does he or she love me?--Ardently?

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**Who acts:** Lovers, French · **What happens:** pluck, ask, love · **To what, where:** leaf, question, flowers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Lovers, French), 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:pg27200:15:5
# text = Lovers pluck off the leaves, and as they pluck each leaf, they ask a question about their lovers; thus: "Does he or she love me?--Ardently?
1	Lovers	lover	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	pluck	pluck	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	off	off	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	pluck	pluck	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
11	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
12	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	about	about	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	lovers	lover	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
22	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
24	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	Does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	love	love	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	Ardently	ardently	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pluck** | present | Lovers |  |  |  |  | off the leaves; thus *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **pluck** | present | Lovers *= lover* | each leaf |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Patient |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | Lovers *= lover* | a question |  |  |  | about Lovers's lovers | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent question=Recipient about lover=Topic |
| 4 | **love** *in a quote* | present · do-support | French | flowers *= flower* |  |  |  | ardently *property* | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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