--- title: "I told them that the safest and most convenient course was to give… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: "I told them that the safest and most convenient course was to give up the honor, and do nothing at all; but the little flames would not agree to this, and already fancied themselves clad in fiery yellow clothes, breathing flames from their throats. Who acts: I, safest, little flames. A sentence of --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/186/) [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 Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Sa…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/) / 186 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, sentence 186 "I told them that the safest and most convenient course was to give up the honor, and do nothing at all; but the little flames would not agree to this, and already fancied themselves clad in fiery yellow clothes, breathing flames from their throats. **Who acts:** I, safest, little flames · **What happens:** tell, give up, do, not agree, fancy, clad · **To what, where:** Wisps, honor, nothing, all, fiery yellow clothes · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, safest, little flames), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:211:186 # text = "I told them that the safest and most convenient course was to give up the honor, and do nothing at all; but the little flames would not agree to this, and already fancied themselves clad in fiery yellow clothes, breathing flames from their throats. 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 iobj _ _ 5 that that SCONJ IN _ 14 mark _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 safest safe ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 14 nsubj _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 9 most most ADV RBS Degree=Sup 10 advmod _ _ 10 convenient convenient ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 conj _ _ 11 course course NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 fixed _ _ 12 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 aux _ _ 13 to to PART TO _ 14 mark _ _ 14 give give VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 3 ccomp _ _ 15 up up ADP RP _ 14 compound:prt _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 honor honor NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 19 and and CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ _ 20 do do VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 21 nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 20 obj _ _ 22 at at ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 23 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 21 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 24 ; ; PUNCT : _ 31 punct _ _ 25 but but CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 27 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 28 amod _ _ 28 flames flame NOUN NNS Number=Plur 31 nsubj _ _ 29 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 31 aux _ _ 30 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 31 advmod _ _ 31 agree agree VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 3 conj _ _ 32 to to ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 33 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 37 cc _ _ 36 already already ADV RB _ 37 advmod _ _ 37 fancied fancy VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 38 themselves themselves PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 37 obj _ _ 39 clad clad VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 37 xcomp _ _ 40 in in ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 41 fiery fiery ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 43 amod _ _ 42 yellow yellow ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 43 amod _ _ 43 clothes clothes NOUN NNS Number=Ptan 39 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 44 , , PUNCT , _ 46 punct _ _ 45 breathing breathing NOUN NN Number=Sing 46 compound _ _ 46 flames flame NOUN NNS Number=Plur 43 conj _ _ 47 from from ADP IN _ 49 case _ _ 48 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 49 nmod:poss _ _ 49 throats throat NOUN NNS Number=Plur 46 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 50 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | I | | Wisps *= wisp* | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic | | 2 | **give up** *not said to happen, in a quote* | past | the safest | the honor | | | | | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent honor=Source | | 3 | **do** *in a quote* | present | | nothing | | all | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality | | 4 | **not** **agree** *speech: agree* *in a quote* | would | the little flames | | | | | to this | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **fancy** *in a quote* | past | I *not said here* | Wisps *= wisp* | | | | | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme clause=Attribute | | 6 | **clad** *in a quote* | participle | I *not said here* | | | fiery yellow clothes and breathing flames from Wisps's throats | | | tree rules | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 185](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/185/) - next →: [sentence 187](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/187/) - ↑ back to [The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/211/)