---
title: "Let me see the egg that will not break," said the duck; "I have no… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Let me see the egg that will not break," said the duck; "I have no doubt it is a turkey's egg. Who acts: duck, egg. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 20

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"Let me see the egg that will not break," said the duck; "I have no doubt it is a turkey's egg.

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**Who acts:** duck, egg · **What happens:** let, see, not break, say, have, be · **To what, where:** duck, egg, doubt · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (duck, egg), 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:pg27200:201:20
# text = "Let me see the egg that will not break," said the duck; "I have no doubt it is a turkey's egg.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	obj	_	_
8	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	doubt	doubt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	turkey	turkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the duck *= duck* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | infinitive | the duck *= duck* *not said here* | the egg |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer egg=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **break** *in a quote* | future |  | the egg |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer that=Patient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the duck |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **have** *in a quote* | present | the duck *= duck* | no doubt |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent doubt=Patient |
| 6 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | egg | a turkey's egg |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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