---
title: If I had only such a little singing-bird, I'd be kind and good as a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: If I had only such a little singing-bird, I'd be kind and good as a mother to him, for it's in my nature, in my Portuguese blood." Who acts: I, art. 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 cla
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If I had only such a little singing-bird, I'd be kind and good as a mother to him, for it's in my nature, in my Portuguese blood."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, art · **What happens:** have, be · **To what, where:** little singing bird, bird

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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, art), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:145:9
# text = If I had only such a little singing-bird, I'd be kind and good as a mother to him, for it's in my nature, in my Portuguese blood."
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
5	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	10	det:predet	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
8	singing	singing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	'd	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
15	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	Portuguese	portuguese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | I | such little singing bird |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | would | I |  | bird |  |  | as a mother; kind *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | present | art |  |  |  |  | for my nature | tree rules |

<!-- .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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