---
title: "My excellent little nightingale," said the courtier, "I have the gr… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "My excellent little nightingale," said the courtier, "I have the great pleasure of inviting you to a court festival this evening, where you will gain imperial favor by your charming song." Who acts: excellent little nightingale, great pleasure, you, your. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christia
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Nightingale, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"My excellent little nightingale," said the courtier, "I have the great pleasure of inviting you to a court festival this evening, where you will gain imperial favor by your charming song."

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**Who acts:** excellent little nightingale, great pleasure, you, your · **What happens:** say, have, invite, gain, sing · **To what, where:** courtier, great pleasure, you, imperial favor · **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 (excellent little nightingale, great pleasure, you, your), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:125:55
# text = "My excellent little nightingale," said the courtier, "I have the great pleasure of inviting you to a court festival this evening, where you will gain imperial favor by your charming song."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
3	excellent	excellent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	nightingale	nightingale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	courtier	courtier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	inviting	invite	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	festival	festival	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	31	advmod	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	gain	gain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	parataxis	_	_
32	imperial	imperial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	favor	favor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	by	by	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
36	charming	charming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	compound	_	_
37	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | My excellent little nightingale | the courtier |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | present | My excellent little nightingale *= nightingale* | the great pleasure |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pleasure=Patient |
| 3 | **invite** *in a quote* | gerund | the great pleasure *not said here* |  | you |  | evening | to a court festival | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 4 | **gain** *in a quote* | future | you | imperial favor |  |  |  | by your charming song | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent favor=Theme |
| 5 | **sing** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: 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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