---
title: “It's a strange race, those poets!” said the clerk, who was very fon… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “It's a strange race, those poets!” said the clerk, who was very fond of soliloquizing. Who acts: opinion, strange race, clerk. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4, sentence 28

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“It's a strange race, those poets!” said the clerk, who was very fond of soliloquizing.

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**Who acts:** opinion, strange race, clerk · **What happens:** be, say, soliloquize · **To what, where:** strange race, clerk · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (opinion, strange race, clerk), 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:pg1597:8:28
# text = “It's a strange race, those poets!” said the clerk, who was very fond of soliloquizing.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	race	race	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	poets	poet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	clerk	clerk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	very	very	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	acl:relcl	_	_
20	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	soliloquizing	soliloquize	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | opinion | a strange race and that poets |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | a strange race and that poets | the clerk |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent clerk=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | past | the clerk |  |  |  |  | fond *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **soliloquize** | gerund | the clerk *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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