---
title: He had placed the light directly behind him, for he knew that the sh… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He had placed the light directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its master for a screen, but he could not entice it. Who acts: man, shadow. 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/pg1597/23/54/)

<!-- 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/) / 54

# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shadow, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had placed the light directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its master for a screen, but he could not entice it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, shadow · **What happens:** place, know, have, not entice · **To what, where:** light, master, shadow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (man, 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:pg1597:23:54
# text = He had placed the light directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its master for a screen, but he could not entice it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	directly	directly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	18	advmod	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
19	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	screen	screen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	entice	entice	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **place** | past · perfect | man | the light |  |  |  | directly *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent light=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **have** | would | the shadow | shadow's master |  |  |  | for a screen; always *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent master=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **entice** | could | man | shadow |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/53/)
- next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/55/)
- ↑ back to [The Shadow](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/23/)