---
title: "I never ask a question twice," said the beetle, after he had asked… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "I never ask a question twice," said the beetle, after he had asked this one three times, and received no answer. Who acts: beetle. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels, sentence 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I never ask a question twice," said the beetle, after he had asked this one three times, and received no answer.

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**Who acts:** beetle · **What happens:** not ask, say, ask, receive · **To what, where:** question, one, answer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beetle), 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:pg27200:8:57
# text = "I never ask a question twice," said the beetle, after he had asked this one three times, and received no answer.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	beetle	beetle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
14	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
18	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	received	receive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
25	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	26	det	_	_
26	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | present | the beetle *= beetle* | a question |  |  |  | twice *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the beetle |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past · perfect | beetle | this one |  |  | time |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent one=Recipient |
| 4 | **receive** | past |  | no answer |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent answer=Theme |

<!-- .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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