---
title: But the way was unfit for the girls; they would have torn their dres… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the way was unfit for the girls; they would have torn their dresses. Who acts: way. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/9/33/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Bell](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/9/) / 33

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bell, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the way was unfit for the girls; they would have torn their dresses.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** way · **What happens:** be, tear · **To what, where:** girls

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (way), 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:pg27200:9:33
# text = But the way was unfit for the girls; they would have torn their dresses.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	unfit	unfit	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
13	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the way |  |  |  |  | for the girls; unfit *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tear** | would · perfect · passive |  | girls *= girl* |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Patient dress=Result |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/9/32/)
- next →: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/9/34/)
- ↑ back to [The Bell](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/9/)