---
title: And he went on explaining things to me till my skull seemed lifted f… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And he went on explaining things to me till my skull seemed lifted from my brain, and I declared that were I not such an old fellow, I would at once become a member of the Polytechnic Institution, that I might learn to look at the bright side of everything, although I was one of the happiest of men.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Puppet-show Man, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he went on explaining things to me till my skull seemed lifted from my brain, and I declared that were I not such an old fellow, I would at once become a member of the Polytechnic Institution, that I might learn to look at the bright side of everything, although I was one of the happiest of men.

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**Who acts:** series, I, that · **What happens:** go, explain, lift, declare, not be, become · **To what, where:** things, me, brain, old fellow, member, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (series, I, that), 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:pg27200:152:26
# text = And he went on explaining things to me till my skull seemed lifted from my brain, and I declared that were I not such an old fellow, I would at once become a member of the Polytechnic Institution, that I might learn to look at the bright side of everything, although I was one of the happiest of men.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
4	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	explaining	explain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
6	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
9	till	till	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	skull	skull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
12	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	lifted	lift	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	advcl	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	brain	brain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
25	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	28	det:predet	_	_
26	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	31	obl	_	_
34	become	become	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	member	member	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	xcomp	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	Polytechnic	Polytechnic	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	_
40	Institution	institution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
42	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
43	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
44	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
45	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	conj	_	_
46	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
47	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	xcomp	_	_
48	at	at	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
50	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	amod	_	_
51	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
52	of	of	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	51	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
55	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	58	mark	_	_
56	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	58	nsubj	_	_
57	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	58	cop	_	_
58	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	47	obl	_	_
59	of	of	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
60	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
61	happiest	happy	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	58	nmod	_	_
62	of	of	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
63	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	61	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | series |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **explain** *speech: assert* | gerund | series *not said here* | things | me |  | till my skull |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent thing=Topic to i=Recipient |
| 3 | **lift** | past · passive |  |  |  | my brain |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: from brain=Destination |
| 4 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is a** | past | that | such old fellow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **become** | would |  | a member of the Polytechnic Institution |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **learn** | might | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 8 | **look** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the bright side of everything | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at side=Theme |
| 9 | **is a** | past | I | one |  |  |  | of the happiest | tree rules |

<!-- .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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