---
title: "Is it possible?" said the lord-in-waiting, "I never imagined it wou… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Is it possible?" said the lord-in-waiting, "I never imagined it would be a little, plain, simple thing like that. Who acts: bird, waiting. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Nightingale, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Nightingale, sentence 48

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"Is it possible?" said the lord-in-waiting, "I never imagined it would be a little, plain, simple thing like that.

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**Who acts:** bird, waiting · **What happens:** be, say, not imagine · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Nightingale. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird, waiting), 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:pg27200:125:48
# text = "Is it possible?" said the lord-in-waiting, "I never imagined it would be a little, plain, simple thing like that.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
9	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	waiting	waiting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	imagined	imagine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	plain	plain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
27	simple	simple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
29	like	like	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | bird |  |  |  |  | possible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the waiting |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **imagine** *in a quote* | past | the waiting *= waiting* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | would | bird |  |  |  |  | little *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:** «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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