---
title: As the daughter of a king, she needed not to stand upon trifles, so… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: As the daughter of a king, she needed not to stand upon trifles, so she said, “Your complaint is, that you cannot cast a shadow?” Who acts: princess, complaint, Your. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shadow, sentence 199

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As the daughter of a king, she needed not to stand upon trifles, so she said, “Your complaint is, that you cannot cast a shadow?”

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**Who acts:** princess, complaint, Your · **What happens:** need, not stand, say, not be, complain · **To what, where:** trifles · **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 (princess, complaint, Your), 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:pg1597:23:199
# text = As the daughter of a king, she needed not to stand upon trifles, so she said, “Your complaint is, that you cannot cast a shadow?”
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	needed	need	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
13	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	trifles	trifle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
20	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	complaint	complaint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj:outer	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	cast	cast	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **need** | past | princess |  |  |  |  | as the daughter of a king | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **stand** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | princess *not said here* |  |  | trifles |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon trifle=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | can · present | Your complaint |  |  |  |  | cast *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **complain** *in a quote* |  | Your |  |  |  |  |  | nom complaint «state intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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