---
title: There was once a butterfly who wished for a bride, and, as may be su… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a butterfly who wished for a bride, and, as may be supposed, he wanted to choose a very pretty one from among the flowers. Who acts: butterfly. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Butterfly, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Butterfly, sentence 1

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There was once a butterfly who wished for a bride, and, as may be supposed, he wanted to choose a very pretty one from among the flowers.

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**Who acts:** butterfly · **What happens:** be, wish, suppose, want, choose · **To what, where:** pretty one, flowers

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Butterfly. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (butterfly), 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:pg27200:15:1
# text = There was once a butterfly who wished for a bride, and, as may be supposed, he wanted to choose a very pretty one from among the flowers.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	butterfly	butterfly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	supposed	suppose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
27	from	from	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	among	among	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a butterfly |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **wish** | past | a butterfly |  |  |  |  | for a bride | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for bride=Theme |
| 3 | **suppose** | may · passive | butterfly *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S» |
| 4 | **want** | past | butterfly |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **choose** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | butterfly *not said here* | a pretty one |  | the flowers |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent one=Theme from flower=Source |

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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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