---
title: "Why have not we an immortal soul?" asked the little mermaid mournfu… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Why have not we an immortal soul?" asked the little mermaid mournfully; "I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars." Who acts: we, little mermaid, hund
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Why have not we an immortal soul?" asked the little mermaid mournfully; "I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars."

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**Who acts:** we, little mermaid, hundreds, hope · **What happens:** have, not soul, ask, give, live, be · **To what, where:** hundreds, hope, happiness · **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 (we, little mermaid, hundreds, hope), 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:pg27200:76:59
# text = "Why have not we an immortal soul?" asked the little mermaid mournfully; "I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
5	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	immortal	immortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	mournfully	mournfully	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
21	gladly	gladly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	24	det:predet	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	hundreds	hundred	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obj	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
34	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	cop	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
36	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
37	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	41	cop	_	_
38	only	only	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
39	for	for	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	41	nummod	_	_
41	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	_
48	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	47	acl	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obj	_	_
52	of	of	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
53	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	55	det	_	_
54	glorious	glorious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nmod	_	_
56	above	above	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
57	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **soul** *in a quote* |  | we |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the little mermaid |  |  |  |  | mournfully *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **give** *in a quote* | would | the little mermaid *= mermaid* | all hundreds of years |  |  |  | gladly *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hundred=Theme |
| 5 | **have** *in a quote* | present | the little mermaid *= mermaid* | all hundreds of years |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **live** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | all hundreds of years *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **is** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | for a human one day |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **have** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the little mermaid *= mermaid* *not said here* | the hope |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hope=Patient |
| 9 | **know** *in a quote* | gerund | the hope *not said here* | the happiness of that glorious world above the stars |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer happiness=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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