---
title: "Why, of course," said the horrid men, "if you will pay his debt we… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Why, of course," said the horrid men, "if you will pay his debt we will both promise not to touch him. Who acts: horrid men, you, we. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Why, of course," said the horrid men, "if you will pay his debt we will both promise not to touch him.

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**Who acts:** horrid men, you, we · **What happens:** say, pay, promise, not touch · **To what, where:** debt, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horrid men, you, we), 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:pg27200:196:66
# text = "Why, of course," said the horrid men, "if you will pay his debt we will both promise not to touch him.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	2	advcl:relcl	_	_
5	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	horrid	horrid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	debt	debt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	nsubj	_	_
23	promise	promise	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the horrid men |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pay** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | future | you | man's debt |  |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent debt=Asset |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* *in a quote* | future | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **touch** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | man |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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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