---
title: We cannot expect to be happy always," said the flax; "by experiencin… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: We cannot expect to be happy always," said the flax; "by experiencing evil as well as good, we become wise." Who acts: We. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flax, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flax, sentence 15

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We cannot expect to be happy always," said the flax; "by experiencing evil as well as good, we become wise."

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**Who acts:** We · **What happens:** not expect, be, say, experience, become · **To what, where:** flax · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flax. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We), 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:pg27200:34:15
# text = We cannot expect to be happy always," said the flax; "by experiencing evil as well as good, we become wise."
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	expect	expect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
8	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	experiencing	experience	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
18	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
19	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	22	cc	_	_
20	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	fixed	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	fixed	_	_
22	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	become	become	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
26	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **expect** | can | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | We *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always, happy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  | the flax |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **experience** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | evil *property* | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **become** | present | we |  |  |  |  | wise *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

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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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