---
title: To be a stranger in a strange land is a bitter lot; no one notices y… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: To be a stranger in a strange land is a bitter lot; no one notices you unless you happen to stand in their way. Who acts: stranger, one, you. 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 cl
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, sentence 38

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To be a stranger in a strange land is a bitter lot; no one notices you unless you happen to stand in their way.

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**Who acts:** stranger, one, you · **What happens:** be, notice, happen, stand · **To what, where:** stranger, strange land, bitter lot, you, way

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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 (stranger, one, you), 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:pg27200:128:38
# text = To be a stranger in a strange land is a bitter lot; no one notices you unless you happen to stand in their way.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
2	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	bitter	bitter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	lot	lot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
15	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	notices	notice	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	happen	happen	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a stranger |  | a strange land |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | present | a stranger | a bitter lot |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **notice** | present | no one | you |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer you=Stimulus |
| 4 | **happen** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **stand** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  | booths's way |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in way=Location |

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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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