---
title: "He is the grandest and most gallant gentleman in the whole country,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "He is the grandest and most gallant gentleman in the whole country," said Grubbe the knight; "that is not a thing to despise." Who acts: thing, grandest gentleman, that. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, sentence 54

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"He is the grandest and most gallant gentleman in the whole country," said Grubbe the knight; "that is not a thing to despise."

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**Who acts:** thing, grandest gentleman, that · **What happens:** be, say, not be, despise · **To what, where:** grandest gentleman, whole country, knight, thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thing, grandest gentleman, that), 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:pg27200:149:54
# text = "He is the grandest and most gallant gentleman in the whole country," said Grubbe the knight; "that is not a thing to despise."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
5	grandest	grand	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	amod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	8	advmod	_	_
8	gallant	gallant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
9	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	Grubbe	Grubbe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	ccomp	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	despise	despise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | thing | the grandest gentleman |  | the whole country |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the grandest gentleman | the knight |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent knight=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | present | that | a thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **despise** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the grandest gentleman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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