--- title: This boast cost him his life; for when he went home Niels followed h… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: This boast cost him his life; for when he went home Niels followed him, and cut his throat, intending to rob the murdered man of the gold, which did not exist. Who acts: boast, Niels, gold. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/161/58/) [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/) / [A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/161/) / 58 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4, sentence 58 This boast cost him his life; for when he went home Niels followed him, and cut his throat, intending to rob the murdered man of the gold, which did not exist. **Who acts:** boast, Niels, gold · **What happens:** cost, go, follow, cut, intend, rob · **To what, where:** life, Martin, throat, murdered man This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boast, Niels, gold), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:161:58 # text = This boast cost him his life; for when he went home Niels followed him, and cut his throat, intending to rob the murdered man of the gold, which did not exist. 1 This this DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 2 det _ _ 2 boast boast NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ _ 3 cost cost VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 iobj _ _ 5 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 6 nmod:poss _ _ 6 life life NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 7 ; ; PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 8 for for SCONJ IN _ 11 mark _ _ 9 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 11 advmod _ _ 10 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 11 nsubj _ _ 11 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 12 home home ADV RB _ 11 advmod _ _ 13 Niels Niels PROPN NNP Number=Sing 14 nsubj _ _ 14 followed follow VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 11 obl _ _ 15 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 18 cut cut VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 19 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 20 nmod:poss _ _ 20 throat throat NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 21 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 22 intending intend VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 18 advcl _ _ 23 to to PART TO _ 24 mark _ _ 24 rob rob VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 22 xcomp _ _ 25 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 26 murdered murder VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 27 amod _ _ 27 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obj _ _ 28 of of ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 gold gold NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 32 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 35 nsubj _ _ 33 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 35 aux _ _ 34 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 35 advmod _ _ 35 exist exist VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 30 acl:relcl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **cost** | past | this boast | Martin's life | Martin | | | | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Theme he=Beneficiary life=Value | | 2 | **go** | past | boast | | | | | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 3 | **follow** | past | Niels | Martin | | | | | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | | 4 | **cut** | past | | Niels's throat | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset throat=Product | | 5 | **intend** | gerund | | | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 6 | **rob** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | | the murdered man of the gold | | | | | vn cheat-10.6.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Source | | 7 | **murder** | participle | | | | | | | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 8 | **not** **exist** | past · do-support | the gold | | | | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/161/57/) - next →: [sentence 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/161/59/) - ↑ back to [A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/161/)