---
title: Had I still my old eye, which was broken off, I believe I should wee… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Had I still my old eye, which was broken off, I believe I should weep; but no, I would not do that, it is not genteel to cry." Who acts: I, it. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Darning-needle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Darning-needle, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Had I still my old eye, which was broken off, I believe I should weep; but no, I would not do that, it is not genteel to cry."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, it · **What happens:** have, break off, believe, weep, not do, not be · **To what, where:** I, old eye, that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Darning-needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, it), 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:pg27200:21:50
# text = Had I still my old eye, which was broken off, I believe I should weep; but no, I would not do that, it is not genteel to cry."
1	Had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	_
11	off	off	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	believe	believe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	weep	weep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	25	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	parataxis	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	genteel	genteel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	cry	cry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  | I |  |  |  | my old eye *obl* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 2 | **break off** | past · passive |  | my old eye |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **believe** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **weep** | should | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **do** | would | I | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 6 | **not** **is** | present | it |  |  |  |  | genteel *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **cry** *speech: express* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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