---
title: The eagle could not be taken; it would be folly to attempt it." — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The eagle could not be taken; it would be folly to attempt it." Who acts: eagle. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VI. the Visit to the Mill, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, VI. the Visit to the Mill, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The eagle could not be taken; it would be folly to attempt it."

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**Who acts:** eagle · **What happens:** not take, be, attempt · **To what, where:** eagle

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VI. the Visit to the Mill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eagle), 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:pg27200:57:24
# text = The eagle could not be taken; it would be folly to attempt it."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
11	folly	folly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	attempt	attempt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **take** | could · passive |  | the eagle |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | would | eagle |  |  |  |  | folly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **attempt** | to-infinitive | eagle *not said here* | eagle |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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