---
title: “The thing is, you must understand it,” said the narrator; “let us a… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “The thing is, you must understand it,” said the narrator; “let us ask old Nanny.” Who acts: thing, narrator, us. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush, 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/pg1597/17/84/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elderbush, sentence 84

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“The thing is, you must understand it,” said the narrator; “let us ask old Nanny.”

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**Who acts:** thing, narrator, us · **What happens:** be, say, let, ask · **To what, where:** us, old Nanny · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thing, narrator, us), 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:pg1597:17:84
# text = “The thing is, you must understand it,” said the narrator; “let us ask old Nanny.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	narrator	narrator	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
18	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	Nanny	Nanny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | must · present | the thing |  |  |  |  | understand *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the narrator |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | infinitive | us *not said here* |  | old Nanny |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent nanny=Recipient |

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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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