---
title: His thoughts were so elastic, his heart so tender; and involuntarily… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: His thoughts were so elastic, his heart so tender; and involuntarily he picked one of the nearest flowers. Who acts: thoughts, 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 69

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His thoughts were so elastic, his heart so tender; and involuntarily he picked one of the nearest flowers.

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**Who acts:** thoughts, Clerk · **What happens:** be, pick, think · **To what, where:** one

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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 (thoughts, 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:pg1597:8:69
# text = His thoughts were so elastic, his heart so tender; and involuntarily he picked one of the nearest flowers.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	thoughts	thought	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	elastic	elastic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
9	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	tender	tender	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	involuntarily	involuntarily	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	nearest	near	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	20	amod	_	_
20	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Clerk's thoughts |  |  |  |  | elastic *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **pick** | past | Clerk | one of the nearest flowers |  |  |  | involuntarily *property* | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 3 | **think** |  | Clerk |  |  |  |  |  | nom thought «cognition transitive»: poss=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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