---
title: The pencil pulled and tugged at its string as if it were a little do… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The pencil pulled and tugged at its string as if it were a little dog that wanted to help, but could not. Who acts: pencil, little dog. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god, sentence 20

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The pencil pulled and tugged at its string as if it were a little dog that wanted to help, but could not.

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**Who acts:** pencil, little dog · **What happens:** pull, tug, be, want, help · **To what, where:** pencil, little dog

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pencil, little dog), 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:pg27200:134:20
# text = The pencil pulled and tugged at its string as if it were a little dog that wanted to help, but could not.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	pencil	pencil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	pulled	pull	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	tugged	tug	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:agent	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull** | participle · passive |  | the pencil |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **tug** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | at pencil's string | vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent at string=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | pencil | a little dog |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **want** | past | a little dog |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **help** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a little dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: 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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