---
title: A medicine was offered to him, which he was obliged to take: a bitte… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A medicine was offered to him, which he was obliged to take: a bitter remedy, at which the sick body and the oppressed spirit alike shuddered. Who acts: bitter remedy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, sentence 135

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A medicine was offered to him, which he was obliged to take: a bitter remedy, at which the sick body and the oppressed spirit alike shuddered.

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**Who acts:** bitter remedy · **What happens:** offer, oblige, take, body, oppress, shudder · **To what, where:** medicine, tree, oppressed spirit

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bitter remedy), 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:pg27200:128:135
# text = A medicine was offered to him, which he was obliged to take: a bitter remedy, at which the sick body and the oppressed spirit alike shuddered.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	medicine	medicine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	offered	offer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	bitter	bitter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	remedy	remedy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	oppressed	oppress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	amod	_	_
27	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
28	alike	alike	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	shuddered	shudder	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **offer** | past · passive |  | a medicine | tree |  |  | a bitter remedy and the sick body and the oppressed spirit *obl* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: subject=Theme to he=Goal |
| 2 | **oblige** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 3 | **take** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **body** |  | a bitter remedy and the sick body and the oppressed spirit |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **oppress** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **shudder** | participle |  | the oppressed spirit *not said here* |  |  |  | alike *property* | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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