---
title: He could not say it better; but he felt a sympathy for the little gi… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He could not say it better; but he felt a sympathy for the little girl, and asked her where she was going all alone. Who acts: Raven, girl. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 3, sentence 15

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He could not say it better; but he felt a sympathy for the little girl, and asked her where she was going all alone.

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**Who acts:** Raven, girl · **What happens:** not say, feel, ask, go · **To what, where:** head, sympathy, girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Snow Queen, 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 (Raven, girl), 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:pg1597:13:15
# text = He could not say it better; but he felt a sympathy for the little girl, and asked her where she was going all alone.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sympathy	sympathy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
20	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	iobj	_	_
21	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	24	advmod	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
25	all	all	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | could | Raven | head |  |  |  | well *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 2 | **feel** | past | Raven | a sympathy |  |  |  | for the little girl | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent sympathy=Location for girl=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Raven *not said here* |  | girl |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 4 | **go** | past · progressive | girl |  |  |  |  | alone *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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