--- title: To be sure, he thought he had nothing to risk in his own person; but… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics description: To be sure, he thought he had nothing to risk in his own person; but yet, he would prefer sending somebody else, to bring him intelligence about the weavers, and their work, before he troubled himself in the affair. Who acts: Emperor, weavers. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/2/14/) [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/) / [Andersen's Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/) / [The Emperor's New Clothes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/2/) / 14 # Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Emperor's New Clothes, sentence 14 To be sure, he thought he had nothing to risk in his own person; but yet, he would prefer sending somebody else, to bring him intelligence about the weavers, and their work, before he troubled himself in the affair. **Who acts:** Emperor, weavers · **What happens:** be, think, have, risk, prefer, send · **To what, where:** nothing, work, somebody, intelligence, Emperor, affair · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Emperor's New Clothes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Emperor, weavers), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg1597:2:14 # text = To be sure, he thought he had nothing to risk in his own person; but yet, he would prefer sending somebody else, to bring him intelligence about the weavers, and their work, before he troubled himself in the affair. 1 To to PART TO _ 3 mark _ _ 2 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 3 cop _ _ 3 sure sure ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 6 punct _ _ 5 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 6 thought think VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 7 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 nsubj _ _ 8 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 ccomp _ _ 9 nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 8 obj _ _ 10 to to PART TO _ 11 mark _ _ 11 risk risk VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 9 acl _ _ 12 in in ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 13 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 15 nmod:poss _ _ 14 own own ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 15 amod _ _ 15 person person NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 16 ; ; PUNCT : _ 22 punct _ _ 17 but but CCONJ CC _ 22 cc _ _ 18 yet yet ADV RB _ 22 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 20 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 22 nsubj _ _ 21 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 22 aux _ _ 22 prefer prefer VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 3 parataxis _ _ 23 sending send VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 22 xcomp _ _ 24 somebody somebody PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 23 obj _ _ 25 else else ADV RB _ 24 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 27 to to PART TO _ 28 mark _ _ 28 bring bring VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 22 conj _ _ 29 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 28 obj _ _ 30 intelligence intelligence NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 obj _ _ 31 about about ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 weavers weaver NOUN NNS Number=Plur 28 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 37 cc _ _ 36 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 37 nmod:poss _ _ 37 work work NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 38 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 39 before before SCONJ IN _ 41 mark _ _ 40 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 nsubj _ _ 41 troubled trouble VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 22 parataxis _ _ 42 himself himself PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 41 obj _ _ 43 in in ADP IN _ 45 case _ _ 44 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 45 det _ _ 45 affair affair NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 46 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | to-infinitive | | | | | | sure *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Emperor | | | | | | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 3 | **have** | past | Emperor | nothing | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient | | 4 | **risk** | to-infinitive | Emperor *not said here* | nothing *not said here* | | | | in Emperor's own person | vn risk-94-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **prefer** | would | Emperor | weavers's work | | | yet | | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 6 | **send** *not said to happen* | gerund | Emperor *not said here* | somebody | | | | | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent somebody=Theme | | 7 | **bring** | to-infinitive | Emperor *not said here* | intelligence | Emperor | | | about the weavers | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination intelligence=Theme | | 8 | **trouble** | past | Emperor | Emperor | | the affair | | | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus himself=Experiencer | | 9 | **work** | | weavers *= weaver* | | | | | | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/2/13/) - next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/2/15/) - ↑ back to [The Emperor's New Clothes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/2/)