---
title: Could I exchange my nature with any other creature, I fain would be… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Could I exchange my nature with any other creature, I fain would be such a happy little lark!” Who acts: I. 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 85

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Could I exchange my nature with any other creature, I fain would be such a happy little lark!”

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** exchange, fain, be · **To what, where:** nature, happy little lark

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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 (I), 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:pg1597:8:85
# text = Could I exchange my nature with any other creature, I fain would be such a happy little lark!”
1	Could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	exchange	exchange	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	det	_	_
8	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	fain	fain	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
15	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	19	det:predet	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	lark	lark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **exchange** | could | I | my nature |  |  |  | with any other creature | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent nature=Theme with creature=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **fain** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | would | I *not said here* | such happy little lark |  |  |  |  | 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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