---
title: "It's a pity that his parents are dead and cannot read it," said the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "It's a pity that his parents are dead and cannot read it," said the new porter people, who now lived in the cellar under the General's apartments. Who acts: announcement, parents, new porter people. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 3, 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 3, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"It's a pity that his parents are dead and cannot read it," said the new porter people, who now lived in the cellar under the General's apartments.

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**Who acts:** announcement, parents, new porter people · **What happens:** be, not read, say, live · **To what, where:** pity, announcement, cellar · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (announcement, parents, new porter people), 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:pg27200:148:9
# text = "It's a pity that his parents are dead and cannot read it," said the new porter people, who now lived in the cellar under the General's apartments.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	advcl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
25	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
26	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	cellar	cellar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
30	under	under	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	's	's	PART	POS	_	32	case	_	_
34	apartments	apartment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | announcement | a pity |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | pity's parents |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **read** *in a quote* | can | pity's parents *not said here* | announcement |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **live** | past | the new porter people |  |  | the cellar | now | under the General's apartments | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in cellar=Location |

<!-- .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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