---
title: “It is certainly hard,” said the shadow, “for he was a faithful serv… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “It is certainly hard,” said the shadow, “for he was a faithful servant!” and then he gave a sort of sigh. Who acts: shadow, skull. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/261/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shadow, sentence 261

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“It is certainly hard,” said the shadow, “for he was a faithful servant!” and then he gave a sort of sigh.

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**Who acts:** shadow, skull · **What happens:** be, say, give, sort · **To what, where:** sort, sigh · **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 (shadow, skull), 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:pg1597:23:261
# text = “It is certainly hard,” said the shadow, “for he was a faithful servant!” and then he gave a sort of sigh.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	expl	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	faithful	faithful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	sigh	sigh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | certainly, hard *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the shadow |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | past | skull |  |  |  |  | for a faithful servant | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | past | skull | a sort of sigh |  |  | then |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sort=Theme |
| 5 | **sort** |  |  | sigh |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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