---
title: "That was a terrible affair!" said a hen, and in a quarter of the to… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "That was a terrible affair!" said a hen, and in a quarter of the town, too, where it had not taken place. " Who acts: That, terrible affair. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, There Is No Doubt About It, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, There Is No Doubt About It, sentence 1

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"That was a terrible affair!" said a hen, and in a quarter of the town, too, where it had not taken place. "

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**Who acts:** That, terrible affair · **What happens:** be, say, not take · **To what, where:** terrible affair, hen, it · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, There Is No Doubt About It. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (That, terrible affair), 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:pg27200:126:1
# text = "That was a terrible affair!" said a hen, and in a quarter of the town, too, where it had not taken place. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	affair	affair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	quarter	quarter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	appos	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	27	advmod	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	ccomp	_	_
28	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	_
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | That | a terrible affair |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | a terrible affair | a hen |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **take** | past · perfect · passive |  | it |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme place=Destination |

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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:** «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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