---
title: I know very little of the law of my fathers," said he; "but Sarah's… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I know very little of the law of my fathers," said he; "but Sarah's mother was firm in her belief as a daughter of Israel, and I vowed to her on her deathbed that our child should never be baptized. Who acts: I, teacher, mother, Sarah. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Jewish Maiden, sentence 13

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I know very little of the law of my fathers," said he; "but Sarah's mother was firm in her belief as a daughter of Israel, and I vowed to her on her deathbed that our child should never be baptized.

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**Who acts:** I, teacher, mother, Sarah · **What happens:** know, say, be, vow, not baptize, believe · **To what, where:** little, belief, Sarah, deathbed, child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Jewish Maiden. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, teacher, mother, Sarah), 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:pg27200:67:13
# text = I know very little of the law of my fathers," said he; "but Sarah's mother was firm in her belief as a daughter of Israel, and I vowed to her on her deathbed that our child should never be baptized.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	Sarah	Sarah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	's	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	firm	firm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	belief	belief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	vowed	vow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	deathbed	deathbed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
40	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	46	obj	_	_
41	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj:pass	_	_
43	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
44	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	46	advmod	_	_
45	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	aux:pass	_	_
46	baptized	baptize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	39	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | I | little of the law of my fathers |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer little=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | teacher |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | past | Sarah's mother |  |  | Sarah's belief as a daughter of Israel |  | firm *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **vow** | past | I |  | Sarah | Sarah's deathbed |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **baptize** | should · passive |  | our child |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Theme that=Result |
| 6 | **believe** |  | Sarah |  |  |  |  | as a daughter of Israel | nom belief «cognition transitive»: poss=agent as=obl |

<!-- .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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