---
title: "We are not very badly off, here in the canton Valais," said his unc… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "We are not very badly off, here in the canton Valais," said his uncle one day; "we have the chamois, they do not die so fast as the wild goats, and it is certainly much better here now than in former times. Who acts: We, uncle, strangers, chamois. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anders
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, III. the Uncle, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"We are not very badly off, here in the canton Valais," said his uncle one day; "we have the chamois, they do not die so fast as the wild goats, and it is certainly much better here now than in former times.

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**Who acts:** We, uncle, strangers, chamois · **What happens:** not be, say, have, not die, be · **To what, where:** chamois · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, III. the Uncle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, uncle, strangers, chamois), 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:pg27200:54:13
# text = "We are not very badly off, here in the canton Valais," said his uncle one day; "we have the chamois, they do not die so fast as the wild goats, and it is certainly much better here now than in former times.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
7	off	off	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	conj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	canton	canton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	Valais	Valais	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	uncle	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	chamois	chamois	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	goats	goat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
41	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	44	cop	_	_
42	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	much	much	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	ccomp	_	_
45	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	44	advmod	_	_
46	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	44	advmod	_	_
47	than	than	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
48	in	in	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | We |  |  |  |  | badly, off *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Rudy's uncle |  |  |  | day |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present | we | the chamois |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chamois=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **die** *in a quote* | present · do-support | strangers *= stranger* |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | chamois |  |  | here | now | good *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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