--- title: The poor old minister looked and looked, he could not discover anyth… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics description: The poor old minister looked and looked, he could not discover anything on the looms, for a very good reason, viz: there was nothing there. Who acts: poor old minister, minister, nothing. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Emperor's New Clothes, with its dependency tree an --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/2/22/) [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/) / 22 # Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Emperor's New Clothes, sentence 22 The poor old minister looked and looked, he could not discover anything on the looms, for a very good reason, viz: there was nothing there. **Who acts:** poor old minister, minister, nothing · **What happens:** look, not discover, be · **To what, where:** anything, looms 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 (poor old minister, minister, nothing), 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:pg1597:2:22 # text = The poor old minister looked and looked, he could not discover anything on the looms, for a very good reason, viz: there was nothing there. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 2 poor poor ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 amod _ _ 3 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 amod _ _ 4 minister minister NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 nsubj _ _ 5 looked look VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 6 and and CCONJ CC _ 7 cc _ _ 7 looked look VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 9 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 nsubj _ _ 10 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 12 aux _ _ 11 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 12 advmod _ _ 12 discover discover VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 7 conj _ _ 13 anything anything PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 12 obj _ _ 14 on on ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 15 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 looms loom NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 17 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 18 for for ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 19 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 20 very very ADV RB _ 21 advmod _ _ 21 good good ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 amod _ _ 22 reason reason NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 24 viz viz NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 25 : : PUNCT : _ 27 punct _ _ 26 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 27 expl _ _ 27 was be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 22 parataxis _ _ 28 nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 27 nsubj _ _ 29 there there ADV RB PronType=Dem 28 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 30 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **look** | past | the poor old minister | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 2 | **look** | past | the poor old minister *not said here* | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 3 | **not** **discover** | could | minister | anything | | the looms | | | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Topic | | 4 | **be** | past | nothing | | | there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | 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 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/2/21/) - next →: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/2/23/) - ↑ back to [The Emperor's New Clothes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/2/)