---
title: I've been like a mother to him, I know that, for I've a good heart." — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I've been like a mother to him, I know that, for I've a good heart." Who acts: 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 103

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I've been like a mother to him, I know that, for I've a good heart."

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, know, have · **To what, where:** bird, that, good heart

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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 (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:pg27200:145:103
# text = I've been like a mother to him, I know that, for I've a good heart."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	've	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	've	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present · perfect | I |  | bird |  |  | like a mother | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** | present | I | that |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |
| 3 | **have** | present | I | a good heart |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heart=Patient |

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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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