---
title: At her wedding he was the merriest among the guests, but in the stil… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: At her wedding he was the merriest among the guests, but in the stillness of night he wept: if the public had seen his distorted face then, they would have applauded rapturously. Who acts: love, merriest, guests, melancholy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, F
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Fifteenth Evening, sentence 21

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At her wedding he was the merriest among the guests, but in the stillness of night he wept: if the public had seen his distorted face then, they would have applauded rapturously.

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**Who acts:** love, merriest, guests, melancholy · **What happens:** be, weep, see, applaud, wed · **To what, where:** wedding, public

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Fifteenth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (love, merriest, guests, melancholy), 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:pg27200:106:21
# text = At her wedding he was the merriest among the guests, but in the stillness of night he wept: if the public had seen his distorted face then, they would have applauded rapturously.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	wedding	wedding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	merriest	merry	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	19	nsubj	_	_
8	among	among	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	stillness	stillness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	public	public	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	advcl	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	distorted	distorted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	aux	_	_
34	applauded	applaud	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	conj	_	_
35	rapturously	rapturously	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | love |  |  | melancholy's wedding |  | among the guests; merry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **weep** | past | the merriest |  |  |  |  | in the stillness of night | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in stillness=Theme |
| 3 | **see** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · passive |  | the public |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **applaud** | would · perfect | guests *= guest* |  |  |  |  | rapturously *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **wed** |  | melancholy |  |  |  |  |  | nom wedding «event transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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