---
title: She was an honorable matron; but Agent Fabs, whom she used to call "… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: She was an honorable matron; but Agent Fabs, whom she used to call "Flabs," declared that our aunt was stage-struck. Who acts: word, Flabs. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Our Aunt, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/4/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [Our Aunt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/) / 4

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Our Aunt, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She was an honorable matron; but Agent Fabs, whom she used to call "Flabs," declared that our aunt was stage-struck.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** word, Flabs · **What happens:** be, use, call, declare, strike · **To what, where:** honorable matron, aunt · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Our Aunt. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (word, Flabs), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:139:4
# text = She was an honorable matron; but Agent Fabs, whom she used to call "Flabs," declared that our aunt was stage-struck.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	honorable	honorable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	matron	matron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	Agent	agent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	Fabs	fab	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	obj	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	Flabs	flab	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
20	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
22	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	aunt	aunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
25	stage	stage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	struck	strike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | word | a honorable matron but Agent Fabs |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | past | word | a honorable matron but Agent Fabs |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent whom=Theme clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **call** | to-infinitive | word *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | Flabs |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **strike** | past · passive |  | our aunt |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Instrument |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/5/)
- ↑ back to [Our Aunt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/139/)