---
title: It is the pen that writes: no man doubts that; and, indeed, most peo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It is the pen that writes: no man doubts that; and, indeed, most people understand as much about poetry as an old inkstand." Who acts: fluid, pen, man, most people. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Pen and the Inkstand, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Pen and the Inkstand, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It is the pen that writes: no man doubts that; and, indeed, most people understand as much about poetry as an old inkstand."

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**Who acts:** fluid, pen, man, most people · **What happens:** be, write, doubt, understand · **To what, where:** pen, that, much

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Pen and the Inkstand. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fluid, pen, man, most people), 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:pg27200:142:14
# text = It is the pen that writes: no man doubts that; and, indeed, most people understand as much about poetry as an old inkstand."
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	pen	pen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	writes	write	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
8	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	det	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	doubts	doubt	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	18	amod	_	_
18	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	understand	understand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
20	as	as	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	obj	_	_
22	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	poetry	poetry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	inkstand	inkstand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | fluid | the pen |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **write** | present | the pen |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **doubt** | present | no man | that |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 4 | **understand** | present | most people | much |  |  |  | about poetry; as a old inkstand; indeed *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer much=Stimulus as inkstand=Attribute |

<!-- .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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