---
title: So she told Gerda not to be sorrowful, but to taste the cherries and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: So she told Gerda not to be sorrowful, but to taste the cherries and look at the flowers; they were better than any picture-book, for each of them could tell a story. Who acts: Gerda, cherries, each. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flower Garden of the W
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Could Conjure, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So she told Gerda not to be sorrowful, but to taste the cherries and look at the flowers; they were better than any picture-book, for each of them could tell a story.

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**Who acts:** Gerda, cherries, each · **What happens:** tell, not be, taste, look, be · **To what, where:** Gerda, cherries, story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Gerda, cherries, each), 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:pg27200:172:37
# text = So she told Gerda not to be sorrowful, but to taste the cherries and look at the flowers; they were better than any picture-book, for each of them could tell a story.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	Gerda	Gerda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	iobj	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
8	sorrowful	sorrowful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	taste	taste	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cherries	cherry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	look	look	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	conj	_	_
24	than	than	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
26	picture	picture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	35	nsubj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	_
34	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Gerda |  | Gerda |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent gerda=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | sorrowful *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **taste** | to-infinitive |  | the cherries |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme cherry=Attribute |
| 4 | **look** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | at the flowers | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at flower=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | cherries *= cherry* |  |  |  |  | than any picture book; good *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | each | a story |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient |

<!-- .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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