---
title: "I was giving a representation," he said, "in the hall of the postin… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "I was giving a representation," he said, "in the hall of the posting-house in the little town of Slagelse; there was a splendid audience, entirely juvenile excepting two respectable matrons. Who acts: man, splendid audience, juvenile. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Puppet-show Man, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I was giving a representation," he said, "in the hall of the posting-house in the little town of Slagelse; there was a splendid audience, entirely juvenile excepting two respectable matrons.

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**Who acts:** man, splendid audience, juvenile · **What happens:** give, say, be, except · **To what, where:** representation, hall, two respectable matrons · **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 (man, splendid audience, juvenile), 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:pg27200:152:6
# text = "I was giving a representation," he said, "in the hall of the posting-house in the little town of Slagelse; there was a splendid audience, entirely juvenile excepting two respectable matrons.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	giving	give	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	representation	representation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	posting	posting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	Slagelse	Slagelse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	29	expl	_	_
29	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	splendid	splendid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	audience	audience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	entirely	entirely	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	juvenile	juvenile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	appos	_	_
36	excepting	except	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	35	acl	_	_
37	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	nummod	_	_
38	respectable	respectable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	matrons	matron	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** *in a quote* | past · progressive | man | a representation |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent representation=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  | the hall of the posting house in the little town of Slagelse |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **be** *in a quote* | past | a splendid audience |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **except** *in a quote* | gerund | juvenile *not said here* | two respectable matrons |  |  |  |  | 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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