---
title: So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult t… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult things she could think of, and which she herself could not have answered; so that the shadow made a strange face. Who acts: princess, shadow. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its dependency t
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shadow, sentence 221

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So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult things she could think of, and which she herself could not have answered; so that the shadow made a strange face.

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**Who acts:** princess, shadow · **What happens:** begin, question, think, not answer, make · **To what, where:** man, difficult things, princess, strange face

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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, shadow), 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:pg1597:23:221
# text = So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult things she could think of, and which she herself could not have answered; so that the shadow made a strange face.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	degrees	degree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	question	question	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	14	advmod	_	_
14	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	obj	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	conj	_	_
25	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux	_	_
28	answered	answer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
30	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	34	mark	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	fixed	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | princess |  |  |  |  | by degrees | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **question** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  |  | man |  |  | about the difficult things | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent he=Recipient about thing=Topic |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | could | princess | the difficult things *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot thing=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | could · perfect · passive |  | princess |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Theme which=Eventuality |
| 5 | **make** | past | the shadow | a strange face |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset face=Product |

<!-- .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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