---
title: It is no use asking the flowers; they know only their own songs, and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It is no use asking the flowers; they know only their own songs, and can give me no information." Who acts: bell, use, flowers. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Could Conjure, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Could Conjure, sentence 122

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It is no use asking the flowers; they know only their own songs, and can give me no information."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bell, use, flowers · **What happens:** be, ask, know, give, sing · **To what, where:** use, flowers, own songs, information, me

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Could Conjure. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bell, use, flowers), 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:pg27200:172:122
# text = It is no use asking the flowers; they know only their own songs, and can give me no information."
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	iobj	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	information	information	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | bell | no use |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund | no use *not said here* | the flowers |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent flower=Recipient |
| 3 | **know** | present | flowers *= flower* | flowers's own songs |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer song=Stimulus |
| 4 | **give** | can | flowers *= flower* *not said here* | no information | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient information=Theme |
| 5 | **sing** |  | flowers *= flower* |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: 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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