---
title: The 'prima donna' would only act when the lights were red, for she d… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The 'prima donna' would only act when the lights were red, for she declared that a blue light did not suit her complexion. Who acts: prima donna, lights, donna, blue light. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Puppet-show Man, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Puppet-show Man, sentence 49

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The 'prima donna' would only act when the lights were red, for she declared that a blue light did not suit her complexion.

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**Who acts:** prima donna, lights, donna, blue light · **What happens:** act, be, declare, not suit · **To what, where:** complexion

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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 (prima donna, lights, donna, blue light), 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:pg27200:152:49
# text = The 'prima donna' would only act when the lights were red, for she declared that a blue light did not suit her complexion.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	prima	prima	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	donna	donna	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	act	act	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	lights	light	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	suit	suit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	complexion	complexion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **act** | would | the prima donna |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | the lights |  |  |  |  | red *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | donna |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **suit** | past · do-support | a blue light | donna's complexion |  |  |  |  | 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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