---
title: *As on the continent, in all law and police practices nothing is ver… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: *As on the continent, in all law and police practices nothing is verbal, but any circumstance, however trifling, is reduced to writing, the labor, as well as the number of papers that thus accumulate, is enormous. Who acts: nothing, continent. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4, sentence 5

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\*As on the continent, in all law and police practices nothing is verbal, but any circumstance, however trifling, is reduced to writing, the labor, as well as the number of papers that thus accumulate, is enormous.

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**Who acts:** nothing, continent · **What happens:** be, trifle, reduce, accumulate · **To what, where:** law, circumstance, writing, papers

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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 (nothing, continent), 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:pg1597:8:5
# text = *As on the continent, in all law and police practices nothing is verbal, but any circumstance, however trifling, is reduced to writing, the labor, as well as the number of papers that thus accumulate, is enormous.
1	*	*	PUNCT	NFP	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	As	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	continent	continent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	det	_	_
9	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	police	police	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	practices	practice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	_
13	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	15	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	verbal	verbal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
18	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	circumstance	circumstance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	however	however	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	trifling	trifle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	reduced	reduce	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	labor	labor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	36	cc	_	_
33	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	fixed	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	32	fixed	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	papers	paper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	_
39	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	41	obj	_	_
40	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	accumulate	accumulate	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
43	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	44	cop	_	_
44	enormous	enormous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	44	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | nothing | all law and police practices *not said here* |  |  |  | verbal *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **trifle** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn trifle-105.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **reduce** | present · passive | the continent in all law and police practices *not said here* | any circumstance |  |  |  | to writing and the labor as the number of papers *goal* | vn limit-76 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Patient to writing=Goal |
| 4 | **accumulate** | present |  | papers |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | present | the continent in all law and police practices |  |  |  |  | enormous *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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