---
title: On this occasion the General told his only anecdote, about what he h… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: On this occasion the General told his only anecdote, about what he had said to the Prince, and how the Prince had said to him, "You are incomparable." Who acts: General, George, Prince, only anecdote. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On this occasion the General told his only anecdote, about what he had said to the Prince, and how the Prince had said to him, "You are incomparable."

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**Who acts:** General, George, Prince, only anecdote · **What happens:** tell, say, be · **To what, where:** only anecdote, occasion, Prince, George · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (General, George, Prince, only anecdote), 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:pg27200:147:33
# text = On this occasion the General told his only anecdote, about what he had said to the Prince, and how the Prince had said to him, "You are incomparable."
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	occasion	occasion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	anecdote	anecdote	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	about	about	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	parataxis	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	incomparable	incomparable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the General |  | George's only anecdote | this occasion |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Agent anecdote=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | George |  | the Prince |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to prince=Recipient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | the Prince |  | George |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | George's only anecdote *= anecdote* |  |  |  |  | incomparable *property* | 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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