---
title: But I had the best of it, for there was much in what he did that he… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But I had the best of it, for there was much in what he did that he could not always explain to me. Who acts: I, lecturer. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Puppet-show Man, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Puppet-show Man, sentence 20

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But I had the best of it, for there was much in what he did that he could not always explain to me.

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**Who acts:** I, lecturer · **What happens:** have, be, do, not explain · **To what, where:** best, me

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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, lecturer), 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:pg27200:152:20
# text = But I had the best of it, for there was much in what he did that he could not always explain to me.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	11	expl	_	_
11	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	much	much	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	obj	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	22	advmod	_	_
22	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | I | the best |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | past | I *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | past | lecturer |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **explain** *speech: assert* | could | lecturer |  | me |  |  | always *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent to i=Recipient |

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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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