---
title: “It is as if some one sat there, and practised a piece that he could… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “It is as if some one sat there, and practised a piece that he could not master--always the same piece. ' Who acts: opposite, landlord. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Shadow](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/) / 14

# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shadow, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It is as if some one sat there, and practised a piece that he could not master--always the same piece. '

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** opposite, landlord · **What happens:** be, practise, not master · **To what, where:** piece, same piece

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (opposite, landlord), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg1597:23:14
# text = “It is as if some one sat there, and practised a piece that he could not master--always the same piece. '
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
7	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	practised	practise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	master	master	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	24	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
26	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | opposite |  |  | there |  | sit *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **practise** *in a quote* | past | opposite *not said here* | a piece |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **master** *in a quote* | could | landlord | the same piece |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/15/)
- ↑ back to [The Shadow](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/)