---
title: Wasn't it a good thing that we didn't bind George apprentice to a ha… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Wasn't it a good thing that we didn't bind George apprentice to a handicraftsman? for he has abilities of his own." Who acts: reception, we, Count. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2, sentence 15

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Wasn't it a good thing that we didn't bind George apprentice to a handicraftsman? for he has abilities of his own."

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**Who acts:** reception, we, Count · **What happens:** not be, not bind, have · **To what, where:** good thing, abilities

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (reception, we, Count), 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:pg27200:147:15
# text = Wasn't it a good thing that we didn't bind George apprentice to a handicraftsman? for he has abilities of his own."
1	Was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	bind	bind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl:relcl	_	_
12	George	George	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	apprentice	apprentice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	handicraftsman	handicraftsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
18	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
21	abilities	ability	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | reception | a good thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **bind** | past · do-support | we | a good thing |  |  |  | to a handicraftsman | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | present | Count | abilities of Count's own |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ability=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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