---
title: Astonished at what he saw, the Councillor asked what was the meaning… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Astonished at what he saw, the Councillor asked what was the meaning of all this mummery, and who that man was. Who acts: Councillor, meaning. 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 50

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Astonished at what he saw, the Councillor asked what was the meaning of all this mummery, and who that man was.

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**Who acts:** Councillor, meaning · **What happens:** astonish, see, ask, be, mean · **To what, where:** mummery · **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 (Councillor, meaning), 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:pg1597:5:50
# text = Astonished at what he saw, the Councillor asked what was the meaning of all this mummery, and who that man was.
1	Astonished	astonish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	1	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Councillor	Councillor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	ccomp	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	17	det:predet	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	mummery	mummery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
21	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **astonish** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **see** | past | Councillor |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Councillor |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the meaning of all mummery |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **mean** |  |  | all mummery |  |  |  |  | nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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