---
title: "We must die if we are torn from our stalks," replied the Flowers an… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "We must die if we are torn from our stalks," replied the Flowers and the Grass. Who acts: We, Flowers. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/26/149/)

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Dryad, part 3, sentence 149

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"We must die if we are torn from our stalks," replied the Flowers and the Grass.

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**Who acts:** We, Flowers · **What happens:** die, tear, reply · **To what, where:** we · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Dryad, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, Flowers), 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:pg27200:26:149
# text = "We must die if we are torn from our stalks," replied the Flowers and the Grass.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	stalks	stalk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
14	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Flowers	Flower	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** *in a quote* | must | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **tear** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present · passive |  | we |  |  |  | from our stalks | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient from stalk=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the Flowers and the Grass |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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