---
title: "We have given our hair to the witch," said they, "to obtain help fo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "We have given our hair to the witch," said they, "to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night. Who acts: We, sisters, you. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 4, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"We have given our hair to the witch," said they, "to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night.

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**Who acts:** We, sisters, you · **What happens:** give, say, obtain, not die · **To what, where:** hair, witch, help · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, sisters, you), 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:pg27200:78:24
# text = "We have given our hair to the witch," said they, "to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
5	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
18	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** *in a quote* | present · perfect | We | our hair | the witch |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent hair=Theme to witch=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **obtain** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | help |  |  |  | for you | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent help=Theme for you=Asset |
| 4 | **not** **die** *in a quote* | may | you |  |  |  | night |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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