---
title: We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more. Who acts: We, green sea weed. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, with its dependency tree
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more.

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**Who acts:** We, green sea weed · **What happens:** have, not live, cut off, not flourish · **To what, where:** immortal souls, weed, more

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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 (We, green sea weed), 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:pg27200:76:55
# text = We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	immortal	immortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	souls	soul	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
11	again	again	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	like	like	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
17	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
18	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	weed	weed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
23	once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
28	off	off	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
30	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
33	flourish	flourish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
34	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | We | immortal souls |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent soul=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **live** | shall | we |  |  |  | again |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **cut off** | present · perfect · passive |  | weed |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **flourish** | can | the green sea weed | more |  |  |  |  | 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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