---
title: If the houses were asked, they could not answer; but the people woul… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: If the houses were asked, they could not answer; but the people would understand, and say, "Certainly the street built his house for him." Who acts: tailor, people, street. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Snowdrop, sentence 137

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If the houses were asked, they could not answer; but the people would understand, and say, "Certainly the street built his house for him."

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**Who acts:** tailor, people, street · **What happens:** ask, not answer, understand, say, build · **To what, where:** houses, house · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tailor, people, street), 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:pg27200:177:137
# text = If the houses were asked, they could not answer; but the people would understand, and say, "Certainly the street built his house for him."
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	Certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	built	build	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | the houses |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | could | tailor |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **understand** | would | the people |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | tailor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **build** *in a quote* | past | the street | street's house |  |  |  | for friend; certainly *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent house=Product for he=Beneficiary |

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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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