---
title: “Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!” said she; but the rose tree… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!” said she; but the rose tree, with its beautiful rose came to view. Who acts: joy, nightingale, rose tree. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Swineherd, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Swineherd, sentence 12

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“Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!” said she; but the rose tree, with its beautiful rose came to view.

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**Who acts:** joy, nightingale, rose tree · **What happens:** be, say, come, view · **To what, where:** little pussy cat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Swineherd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (joy, nightingale, rose tree), 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:pg1597:3:12
# text = “Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!” said she; but the rose tree, with its beautiful rose came to view.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	15	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
10	pussy	pussy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	rose	rose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	rose	rose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
27	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	view	view	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | joy | a little pussy cat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | nightingale |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come** | past | the rose tree and joy's beautiful rose |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **view** | to-infinitive | the rose tree and joy's beautiful rose *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |

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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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