---
title: If a thing is to be done well," said she, "I must do it myself." — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: If a thing is to be done well," said she, "I must do it myself." Who acts: Viking, I. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3, sentence 25

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If a thing is to be done well," said she, "I must do it myself."

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**Who acts:** Viking, I · **What happens:** do, say · **To what, where:** thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Viking, 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:pg27200:85:25
# text = If a thing is to be done well," said she, "I must do it myself."
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	_
8	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	17	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · passive |  | a thing |  |  |  | well *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | Viking |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | must | I | thing |  |  |  | myself *obl:unmarked* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

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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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