---
title: The old lamp assured them that not one of them could give sufficient… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The old lamp assured them that not one of them could give sufficient light to fill the position of a street lamp; but they would believe nothing he said. Who acts: old lamp, one, others, worm. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Street Lamp, with its dep
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Street Lamp, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old lamp assured them that not one of them could give sufficient light to fill the position of a street lamp; but they would believe nothing he said.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old lamp, one, others, worm · **What happens:** assure, give, fill, believe, say · **To what, where:** others, sufficient light, position, nothing · **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 Street Lamp. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old lamp, one, others, worm), 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:pg27200:133:36
# text = The old lamp assured them that not one of them could give sufficient light to fill the position of a street lamp; but they would believe nothing he said.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	assured	assure	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nsubj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nmod	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
13	sufficient	sufficient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	fill	fill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	position	position	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
28	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	27	obj	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **assure** | past | the old lamp |  | others *= other* |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient that S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **give** | could | one of others | sufficient light |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Theme |
| 3 | **fill** | to-infinitive | one of others *not said here* | the position of a street lamp |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent position=Patient |
| 4 | **believe** | would | others *= other* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | worm |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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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