---
title: Break them to pieces with your hands and feet, and they will become… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Break them to pieces with your hands and feet, and they will become flax, from which you must spin and weave eleven coats with long sleeves; if these are then thrown over the eleven swans, the spell will be broken. Who acts: you, Quantities. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/58/)

<!-- 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 Wild Swans, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/) / 58

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Break them to pieces with your hands and feet, and they will become flax, from which you must spin and weave eleven coats with long sleeves; if these are then thrown over the eleven swans, the spell will be broken.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, Quantities · **What happens:** break, become, spin, weave, throw · **To what, where:** Quantities, flax, eleven coats, these, eleven swans, spell

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, Quantities), 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:pg27200:209:58
# text = Break them to pieces with your hands and feet, and they will become flax, from which you must spin and weave eleven coats with long sleeves; if these are then thrown over the eleven swans, the spell will be broken.
1	Break	break	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	parataxis	_	_
15	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obl	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	weave	weave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
24	eleven	eleven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	coats	coat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	sleeves	sleeve	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
30	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
31	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux:pass	_	_
33	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	34	advmod	_	_
34	thrown	throw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	parataxis	_	_
35	over	over	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	eleven	eleven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	38	nummod	_	_
38	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	spell	spell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj:pass	_	_
42	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	44	aux	_	_
43	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	aux:pass	_	_
44	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | imperative | you *not said here* | Quantities *= quantity* |  |  |  | to pieces with your hands and feet *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent they=Patient to piece=Result |
| 2 | **become** | future | Quantities *= quantity* | flax |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **spin** | must | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme from which=Trajectory |
| 4 | **weave** | infinitive | you *not said here* | eleven coats |  |  |  | with long sleeves | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent coat=Product |
| 5 | **throw** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · passive |  | these |  | the eleven swans | then |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme over swan=Destination |
| 6 | **break** | future · passive |  | the spell |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .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 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/57/)
- next →: [sentence 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/59/)
- ↑ back to [The Wild Swans, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/)