---
title: I said so to him, and he smiled; and I could have sworn that he was… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I said so to him, and he smiled; and I could have sworn that he was one of these ancient deities in disguise, or, at all events, that he belonged to the race of the gods. Who acts: I, lecturer, gods. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Puppet-show Man, with 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Puppet-show Man, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I said so to him, and he smiled; and I could have sworn that he was one of these ancient deities in disguise, or, at all events, that he belonged to the race of the gods.

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**Who acts:** I, lecturer, gods · **What happens:** say, smile, swear, be, belong, race · **To what, where:** lecturer, events, 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 (I, lecturer, gods), 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:pg27200:152:37
# text = I said so to him, and he smiled; and I could have sworn that he was one of these ancient deities in disguise, or, at all events, that he belonged to the race of the gods.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	smiled	smile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux	_	_
15	sworn	swear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	xcomp	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
22	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	deities	deity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	disguise	disguise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	31	det	_	_
31	events	event	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	belonged	belong	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	race	race	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | I |  | lecturer |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 2 | **smile** | past | lecturer |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **swear** | could · perfect | I |  |  | all events |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | lecturer | one |  |  |  | of this ancient deities in disguise | tree rules |
| 5 | **belong** | past | lecturer |  |  |  |  | to the race of the gods | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **race** |  | the gods |  |  |  |  |  | nom race «event intransitive»: of=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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