---
title: If I were forced to choose a bride, I would rather choose you, my du… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: If I were forced to choose a bride, I would rather choose you, my dumb foundling, with those expressive eyes." Who acts: I. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 82

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If I were forced to choose a bride, I would rather choose you, my dumb foundling, with those expressive eyes."

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** force, choose · **To what, where:** I, bride, you

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg27200:77:82
# text = If I were forced to choose a bride, I would rather choose you, my dumb foundling, with those expressive eyes."
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	dumb	dumb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	foundling	foundling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
22	expressive	expressive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **force** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **choose** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | a bride |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bride=Theme |
| 3 | **choose** | would | I | you |  |  |  | my dumb foundling and that expressive eyes *obl* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |

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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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