---
title: Now whatever is the meaning of this?" she said; "could he not bear e… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Now whatever is the meaning of this?" she said; "could he not bear even such a little peck as I gave him? Who acts: meaning, creature, bird, I. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, sentence 101

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Now whatever is the meaning of this?" she said; "could he not bear even such a little peck as I gave him?

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**Who acts:** meaning, creature, bird, I · **What happens:** be, say, not bear, give, mean · **To what, where:** whatever, little peck, bird, this · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portuguese Duck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (meaning, creature, bird, I), 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:pg27200:145:101
# text = Now whatever is the meaning of this?" she said; "could he not bear even such a little peck as I gave him?
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	ccomp	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
18	even	even	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
19	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	22	det:predet	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	peck	peck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the meaning of this | whatever |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | creature |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **bear** | could | bird | such little peck |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent peck=Patient |
| 4 | **give** | past | I |  | bird |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **mean** |  |  | this |  |  |  |  | nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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