---
title: If a good thought passed through a man's mind, then a grin was seen… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: If a good thought passed through a man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed heartily at his clever discovery. Who acts: good thought, sprite, man, thought. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 1, with its dependency tree and the
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/11/9/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 1, sentence 9

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If a good thought passed through a man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed heartily at his clever discovery.

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**Who acts:** good thought, sprite, man, thought · **What happens:** pass, see, laugh, mind, discover · **To what, where:** mind, grin, mirror, clever discovery

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (good thought, sprite, man, thought), 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:pg1597:11:9
# text = If a good thought passed through a man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed heartily at his clever discovery.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	through	through	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	grin	grin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	sprite	sprite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	heartily	heartily	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	discovery	discovery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | participle | a good thought |  |  | a man's mind |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through mind=Location |
| 2 | **see** | past · passive |  | a grin |  | the mirror | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 3 | **laugh** | past | the sprite |  |  | thought's clever discovery |  | heartily *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **mind** |  | a man |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **discover** |  | thought |  |  |  |  |  | nom discovery «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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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