---
title: “May I ask with whom I have the pleasure of speaking?” asked the Cou… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “May I ask with whom I have the pleasure of speaking?” asked the Councillor. Who acts: pleasure. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 1, sentence 117

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“May I ask with whom I have the pleasure of speaking?” asked the Councillor.

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**Who acts:** pleasure · **What happens:** ask, have, speak · **To what, where:** pleasure, Councillor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pleasure), 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:pg1597:5:117
# text = “May I ask with whom I have the pleasure of speaking?” asked the Councillor.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	May	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	obl	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Councillor	Councillor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | may | the pleasure *= pleasure* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | present | the pleasure *= pleasure* | the pleasure |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pleasure=Patient |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the pleasure *not said here* |  | the Councillor |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent councillor=Recipient |

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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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