---
title: It was just as if she had been about to do something wrong; and yet… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was just as if she had been about to do something wrong; and yet she only wanted to know if little Kay was there. Who acts: longing, Gerda, little Kay. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/13/84/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Snow Queen, part 3, sentence 84

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It was just as if she had been about to do something wrong; and yet she only wanted to know if little Kay was there.

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**Who acts:** longing, Gerda, little Kay · **What happens:** be, want, know

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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 (longing, Gerda, little Kay), 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:pg1597:13:84
# text = It was just as if she had been about to do something wrong; and yet she only wanted to know if little Kay was there.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
3	just	just	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	cop	_	_
9	about	about	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	11	obj	_	_
13	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	only	only	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	Kay	Kay	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | longing |  |  |  |  | do *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **want** | past | Gerda |  |  |  | yet |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Gerda *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | little Kay |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |

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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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