---
title: Well, perhaps, if in the beginning of a book these were written and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, perhaps, if in the beginning of a book these were written and printed, many, when they read it, would lay the book down and say, "It seems to me a very miserable title, I don't like things of this sort." Who acts: appearance, It. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Cheerful Temper, sentence 5

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Well, perhaps, if in the beginning of a book these were written and printed, many, when they read it, would lay the book down and say, "It seems to me a very miserable title, I don't like things of this sort."

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**Who acts:** appearance, It · **What happens:** write, print, read, lay down, say, seem · **To what, where:** these, beginning, book, miserable title, appearance, many · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Cheerful Temper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (appearance, It), 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:pg27200:16:5
# text = Well, perhaps, if in the beginning of a book these were written and printed, many, when they read it, would lay the book down and say, "It seems to me a very miserable title, I don't like things of this sort."
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	18	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	printed	print	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
18	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	read	read	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	down	down	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	ccomp	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	obl	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
39	very	very	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	title	title	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
43	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
44	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	46	advmod	_	_
46	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
47	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obj	_	_
48	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	50	det	_	_
50	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	46	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	46	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | these |  |  | in the beginning of a book |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in beginning=Destination |
| 2 | **print** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **read** | past | appearance | book |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 4 | **lay down** | would | appearance *not said here* | the book |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent book=Result |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | appearance *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **seem** *in a quote* | present | It | a miserable title | appearance |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **not** **like** *in a quote* | present · do-support | appearance | many |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **begin** |  |  | a book |  |  |  |  | nom beginning «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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