---
title: * It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use the… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: * It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use the second person singular, “Du,” (thou) when speaking to each other. Who acts: debt, intimate acquaintances, thou. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/116/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shadow, sentence 116

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\* It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use the second person singular, “Du,” (thou) when speaking to each other.

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**Who acts:** debt, intimate acquaintances, thou · **What happens:** be, use, speak · **To what, where:** custom, Denmark, second person · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (debt, intimate acquaintances, thou), 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:pg1597:23:116
# text = * It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use the second person singular, “Du,” (thou) when speaking to each other.
1	*	*	PUNCT	NFP	_	5	punct	_	_
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Denmark	Denmark	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	intimate	intimate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	acquaintances	acquaintance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	15	amod	_	_
15	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	singular	singular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Du	Du	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
22	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	23	punct	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
26	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	26	obl	_	_
29	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | debt | the custom |  | Denmark |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | to-infinitive | intimate acquaintances | the second person |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | thou |  |  |  |  | to each | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to each=Co-Agent |

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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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