---
title: It might be said of a tree, as it has been said of some men--it was… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It might be said of a tree, as it has been said of some men--it was not predicted at his cradle that he should come to this. Who acts: tree. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, sentence 169

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It might be said of a tree, as it has been said of some men--it was not predicted at his cradle that he should come to this.

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**Who acts:** tree · **What happens:** say, not predict, come · **To what, where:** fruit, cradle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (tree), 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:pg27200:128:169
# text = It might be said of a tree, as it has been said of some men--it was not predicted at his cradle that he should come to this.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	predicted	predict	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	cradle	cradle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | might · passive |  | fruit |  |  |  | of a tree | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present · perfect · passive |  | fruit |  |  |  | of some men | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **predict** | past · passive |  | fruit |  | tree's cradle |  |  | vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 4 | **come** | should | tree | tree's cradle *not said here* |  |  |  | to this | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cradle=Theme |

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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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