---
title: It must end very soon," said the pieces to each other; "we would gla… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It must end very soon," said the pieces to each other; "we would gladly have held together a little longer, but it is useless to expect impossibilities." Who acts: linen, we. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flax, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flax, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It must end very soon," said the pieces to each other; "we would gladly have held together a little longer, but it is useless to expect impossibilities."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** linen, we · **What happens:** end, say, hold together, be, expect · **To what, where:** pieces, each, impossibilities · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (linen, we), 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:pg27200:34:40
# text = It must end very soon," said the pieces to each other; "we would gladly have held together a little longer, but it is useless to expect impossibilities."
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	end	end	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	8	obl	_	_
13	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
18	gladly	gladly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux	_	_
20	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
21	together	together	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	obl:unmarked	_	_
24	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	expect	expect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
32	impossibilities	impossibility	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **end** | must | linen |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  | the pieces | each |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent piece=Topic to each=Recipient |
| 3 | **hold together** | would · perfect | we |  |  |  |  | gladly, long, together *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | present | linen |  |  |  |  | useless *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **expect** | to-infinitive | linen *not said here* | impossibilities |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent impossibility=Theme |

<!-- .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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