---
title: And then to think that we all, even with patent lacquer, are nothing… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And then to think that we all, even with patent lacquer, are nothing more than insects of a moment on that ant-hill the earth, though we may be insects with stars and garters, places and offices! Who acts: we. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, First Visit, wit
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, First Visit, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And then to think that we all, even with patent lacquer, are nothing more than insects of a moment on that ant-hill the earth, though we may be insects with stars and garters, places and offices!

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** think, be · **To what, where:** we, nothing, insects

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, First Visit. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we), 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:pg27200:136:19
# text = And then to think that we all, even with patent lacquer, are nothing more than insects of a moment on that ant-hill the earth, though we may be insects with stars and garters, places and offices!
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	think	think	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	even	even	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	patent	patent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	lacquer	lacquer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	appos	_	_
16	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	amod	_	_
17	than	than	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	insects	insect	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
24	ant	ant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
31	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	cop	_	_
34	insects	insect	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
35	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nmod	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	garters	garter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
40	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	conj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	offices	office	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  | we |  |  | then | with patent lacquer | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot we=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  | nothing |  |  |  | than insects of a moment on that ant hill | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | may | we | insects |  |  |  | with stars and garters and places and offices | tree rules |

<!-- .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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