---
title: And yet my father was not a skin-dresser nor an executioner; on the… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And yet my father was not a skin-dresser nor an executioner; on the contrary, his employment placed him at the head of the grandest people of the town, and it was his place by right. Who acts: father, skin dresser, town, temper. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Anderse
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Cheerful Temper, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And yet my father was not a skin-dresser nor an executioner; on the contrary, his employment placed him at the head of the grandest people of the town, and it was his place by right.

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**Who acts:** father, skin dresser, town, temper · **What happens:** not be, place, be, employ · **To what, where:** skin dresser, temper, head, place

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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 (father, skin dresser, town, temper), 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:pg27200:16:6
# text = And yet my father was not a skin-dresser nor an executioner; on the contrary, his employment placed him at the head of the grandest people of the town, and it was his place by right.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	dresser	dresser	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
11	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	13	cc	_	_
12	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	executioner	executioner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	contrary	contrary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	employment	employment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
21	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	grandest	grand	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	29	amod	_	_
29	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
37	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
39	by	by	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | my father | a skin dresser nor a executioner |  |  | yet |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **place** | past | a skin dresser nor a executioner | temper |  | the head of the grandest people of the town |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme at head=Destination |
| 3 | **is a** | past | town | temper's place |  |  |  | by right | tree rules |
| 4 | **employ** |  | temper |  |  |  |  |  | nom employment «state transitive»: poss=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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