---
title: "If human beings are not drowned," asked the little mermaid, "can th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "If human beings are not drowned," asked the little mermaid, "can they live forever? do they never die as we do here in the sea?" Who acts: little mermaid, beings, we. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"If human beings are not drowned," asked the little mermaid, "can they live forever? do they never die as we do here in the sea?"

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little mermaid, beings, we · **What happens:** not drown, ask, live, not die, do · **To what, where:** human beings, sea · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little mermaid, beings, 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:pg27200:76:52
# text = "If human beings are not drowned," asked the little mermaid, "can they live forever? do they never die as we do here in the sea?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	drowned	drown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
19	forever	forever	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
21	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	die	die	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
28	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **drown** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present · passive |  | human beings |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the little mermaid |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **live** *in a quote* | can | beings *= being* |  |  |  |  | forever *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **die** *in a quote* | present · do-support | beings *= being* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **do** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  | the sea; here |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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