---
title: I should be thrashed if I were to go to the people and say, 'Look, y… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I should be thrashed if I were to go to the people and say, 'Look, yonder goes a Will-o'-the-Wisp in his best clothes!' Who acts: I. 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, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town, Says the Moor Woman, sentence 224

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I should be thrashed if I were to go to the people and say, 'Look, yonder goes a Will-o'-the-Wisp in his best clothes!'

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** thrash, go, say, look · **To what, where:** I · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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), 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:pg27200:211:224
# text = I should be thrashed if I were to go to the people and say, 'Look, yonder goes a Will-o'-the-Wisp in his best clothes!'
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	thrashed	thrash	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	Look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	yonder	yonder	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
22	Will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	o	of	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	29	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	Wisp	Wisp	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
32	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	33	amod	_	_
33	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thrash** | should · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I |  |  |  |  | to the people | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to people=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **look** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **go** | present |  |  |  |  |  | of a Wisp; yonder *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme of wisp=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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