---
title: She would never wink her eyes, even if, in joke, an expert hand shou… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She would never wink her eyes, even if, in joke, an expert hand should attempt to cut off her eye-brows with a sharp sword. Who acts: maiden, expert hand. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 2, sentence 27

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She would never wink her eyes, even if, in joke, an expert hand should attempt to cut off her eye-brows with a sharp sword.

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**Who acts:** maiden, expert hand · **What happens:** not wink, attempt, cut off · **To what, where:** eyes, eye brows

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, 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 (maiden, expert hand), 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:pg27200:84:27
# text = She would never wink her eyes, even if, in joke, an expert hand should attempt to cut off her eye-brows with a sharp sword.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	wink	wink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	even	even	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	expert	expert	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	attempt	attempt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	parataxis	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	off	off	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
23	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	brows	brow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **wink** | would | maiden | maiden's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 2 | **attempt** | should | a expert hand |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **cut off** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a expert hand *not said here* | maiden's eye brows |  |  |  | with a sharp sword | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector brow=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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