---
title: "Don't take any notice of what he says," whispered the Portuguese; "… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Don't take any notice of what he says," whispered the Portuguese; "he's very well in matters of business, and with him business is placed before everything. Who acts: you, bird, Portuguese, business. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, with
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Don't take any notice of what he says," whispered the Portuguese; "he's very well in matters of business, and with him business is placed before everything.

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**Who acts:** you, bird, Portuguese, business · **What happens:** not take, say, whisper, be, place, matter · **To what, where:** notice, matters, bird, everything · **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 (you, bird, Portuguese, business), 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:pg27200:145:62
# text = "Don't take any notice of what he says," whispered the Portuguese; "he's very well in matters of business, and with him business is placed before everything.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	notice	notice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
13	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Portuguese	Portuguese	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	matters	matter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
33	before	before	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **take** *in a quote* | imperative · do-support | you *not said here* | any notice |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent notice=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | the Portuguese |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | bird |  |  | matters of business |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **place** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | bird |  | everything |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme before everything=Destination |
| 6 | **matter** *in a quote* |  | business |  |  |  |  |  | nom matter «cognition intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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