---
title: No one knew who the dead stranger was, they could not even form a co… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: No one knew who the dead stranger was, they could not even form a conjecture; the fragments of wreckage gave no clue to the matter. Who acts: one, dead stranger, mother, fragments. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2, with its
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2, sentence 6

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No one knew who the dead stranger was, they could not even form a conjecture; the fragments of wreckage gave no clue to the matter.

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**Who acts:** one, dead stranger, mother, fragments · **What happens:** know, be, not form, give · **To what, where:** conjecture, clue, matter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one, dead stranger, mother, fragments), 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:pg27200:159:6
# text = No one knew who the dead stranger was, they could not even form a conjecture; the fragments of wreckage gave no clue to the matter.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	ccomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
13	even	even	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	form	form	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	conjecture	conjecture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	fragments	fragment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	wreckage	wreckage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	24	det	_	_
24	clue	clue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | no one |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the dead stranger |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **form** | could | mother | a conjecture |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location conjecture=Theme |
| 4 | **give** | past | the fragments of wreckage | no clue | the matter |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent clue=Theme to matter=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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