---
title: But she had the invisible thread, to which she could hold fast; and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But she had the invisible thread, to which she could hold fast; and she possessed a gift which all the others lacked. Who acts: page, others. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 195

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But she had the invisible thread, to which she could hold fast; and she possessed a gift which all the others lacked.

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**Who acts:** page, others · **What happens:** have, hold, possess, lack · **To what, where:** invisible thread, gift

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (page, others), 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:pg27200:143:195
# text = But she had the invisible thread, to which she could hold fast; and she possessed a gift which all the others lacked.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	invisible	invisible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	obl	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl:relcl	_	_
13	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	possessed	possess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obj	_	_
21	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	23	det:predet	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
24	lacked	lack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | page | the invisible thread |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thread=Patient |
| 2 | **hold** | could | page |  |  |  |  | to the invisible thread; fast *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **possess** | past | page | a gift |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot gift=Theme |
| 4 | **lack** | past | all others | a gift |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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