---
title: The peonies were sulky; it was well that they could not speak, other… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The peonies were sulky; it was well that they could not speak, otherwise they would have given the daisy a good lecture. Who acts: peonies, idea. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Daisy, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/20/26/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [The Daisy](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/20/) / 26

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Daisy, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The peonies were sulky; it was well that they could not speak, otherwise they would have given the daisy a good lecture.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** peonies, idea · **What happens:** be, not be, give · **To what, where:** daisy

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Daisy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (peonies, idea), 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:pg27200:20:26
# text = The peonies were sulky; it was well that they could not speak, otherwise they would have given the daisy a good lecture.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	peonies	peony	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	sulky	sulky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
8	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	advmod	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	otherwise	otherwise	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux	_	_
19	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	daisy	daisy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	lecture	lecture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the peonies |  |  |  |  | sulky *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | could · past | idea |  |  |  |  | speak, well *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | would · perfect | peonies *= peony* | the daisy |  |  |  | otherwise *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent daisy=Recipient lecture=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/20/25/)
- next →: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/20/27/)
- ↑ back to [The Daisy](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/20/)