---
title: He was affectionate and gentle, and that is as rare a quality in ani… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He was affectionate and gentle, and that is as rare a quality in animals as in those who call themselves human beings." Who acts: cock, that. 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 109

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He was affectionate and gentle, and that is as rare a quality in animals as in those who call themselves human beings."

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**Who acts:** cock, that · **What happens:** be, call · **To what, where:** animals · **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 (cock, that), 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:pg27200:145:109
# text = He was affectionate and gentle, and that is as rare a quality in animals as in those who call themselves human beings."
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	affectionate	affectionate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	rare	rare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	quality	quality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	11	obl	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	call	call	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	obj	_	_
22	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	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 | **is** | past | cock |  |  |  |  | affectionate *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | cock *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  |  | as those; rare *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **call** | present |  | animals *= animal* |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme being=Result |

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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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