---
title: "If he had had a better position, and been able to keep a workshop a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "If he had had a better position, and been able to keep a workshop and journeymen," the porter's wife said, "he might have been a court tailor." Who acts: tailor, wife. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"If he had had a better position, and been able to keep a workshop and journeymen," the porter's wife said, "he might have been a court tailor."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tailor, wife · **What happens:** have, be, keep, say · **To what, where:** better position, workshop, court tailor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tailor, wife), 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:pg27200:146:71
# text = "If he had had a better position, and been able to keep a workshop and journeymen," the porter's wife said, "he might have been a court tailor."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	amod	_	_
8	position	position	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
12	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	workshop	workshop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	journeymen	journeyman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	's	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
27	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
29	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
30	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	aux	_	_
31	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	34	cop	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | past · perfect | tailor | a better position |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent position=Patient |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | participle | tailor *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **keep** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | tailor *not said here* | a workshop and journeymen |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent workshop=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the porter's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | might · perfect | tailor | a court tailor |  |  |  |  | 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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