---
title: "Well, I would gladly be killed," he reasoned; "for then I shall die… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Well, I would gladly be killed," he reasoned; "for then I shall die, and go to heaven:" and so he went home, almost hoping for death. 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 144

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Well, I would gladly be killed," he reasoned; "for then I shall die, and go to heaven:" and so he went home, almost hoping for death.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** kill, reason, die, go, hope · **To what, where:** boy

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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.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:89:144
# text = "Well, I would gladly be killed," he reasoned; "for then I shall die, and go to heaven:" and so he went home, almost hoping for death.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	gladly	gladly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	reasoned	reason	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	obl	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	parataxis	_	_
31	home	home	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	hoping	hope	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	advcl	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** *in a quote* | would · passive |  | boy |  |  |  | gladly *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **reason** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **die** *in a quote* | shall | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for then=Theme |
| 4 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to heaven | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **go** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **hope** | gerund | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for death; almost *property* | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for death=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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