---
title: Ah, if we only lived in the days of tallow candles! and it does not… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Ah, if we only lived in the days of tallow candles! and it does not lie so very far behind us. Who acts: we, self. 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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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Dryad, part 3, sentence 36

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Ah, if we only lived in the days of tallow candles! and it does not lie so very far behind us.

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**Who acts:** we, self · **What happens:** live, not lie

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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, self), 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:pg27200:26:36
# text = Ah, if we only lived in the days of tallow candles! and it does not lie so very far behind us.
1	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	tallow	tallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	candles	candle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
22	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | we |  |  |  | day |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **lie** | present · do-support | self |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «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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