---
title: On board a steamer I once met an elderly man, with such a merry face… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: On board a steamer I once met an elderly man, with such a merry face that, if it was really an index of his mind, he must have been the happiest fellow in creation; and indeed he considered himself so, for I heard it from his own mouth. Who acts: I, merry face, man. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Han
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Puppet-show Man, sentence 1

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On board a steamer I once met an elderly man, with such a merry face that, if it was really an index of his mind, he must have been the happiest fellow in creation; and indeed he considered himself so, for I heard it from his own mouth.

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**Who acts:** I, merry face, man · **What happens:** meet, be, have, consider, hear, mind · **To what, where:** elderly man, steamer, index, happiest fellow, creation, man

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Puppet-show Man. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, merry face, man), 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:pg27200:152:1
# text = On board a steamer I once met an elderly man, with such a merry face that, if it was really an index of his mind, he must have been the happiest fellow in creation; and indeed he considered himself so, for I heard it from his own mouth.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	board	board	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	steamer	steamer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	7	advmod	_	_
7	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	elderly	elderly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	16	det:predet	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	really	really	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	index	index	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	acl:relcl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
31	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	35	cop	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	happiest	happy	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	35	amod	_	_
35	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	creation	creation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
40	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
41	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	considered	consider	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	parataxis	_	_
43	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	42	obj	_	_
44	so	so	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
46	for	for	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
48	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	conj	_	_
49	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	_
50	from	from	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
51	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	53	nmod:poss	_	_
52	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
53	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | I | a elderly man |  | a steamer |  | with such merry face; once *property* | vn satisfy-55.7 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent man=Theme with face=Instrument |
| 2 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | such merry face | a index |  |  |  | of man's mind | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | infinitive | such merry face *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | participle |  | the happiest fellow |  | creation |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **consider** | past | man | man |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent himself=Attribute |
| 6 | **hear** | past | I | face |  | man's own mouth |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent it=Topic from mouth=Source |
| 7 | **mind** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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