---
title: The boy did not know whether he had better jump into the Arno, or go… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The boy did not know whether he had better jump into the Arno, or go home and confess everything. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Metal Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Metal Pig, sentence 142

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The boy did not know whether he had better jump into the Arno, or go home and confess everything.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** not know, have, go, confess · **To what, where:** better jump, Arno, everything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Metal Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg27200:89:142
# text = The boy did not know whether he had better jump into the Arno, or go home and confess everything.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
9	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	10	amod	_	_
10	jump	jump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Arno	Arno	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	home	home	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	confess	confess	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
20	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **have** | past | boy | better jump |  | the Arno |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent jump=Patient |
| 3 | **go** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **confess** | infinitive |  | everything |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent everything=Topic |

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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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