---
title: Jurgen gave such a vague answer that it was not easy to make out wha… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Jurgen gave such a vague answer that it was not easy to make out what he meant--the old man brought Else to him, and she said: Who acts: Jurgen, old man, Martin. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3, with its dependency tree an
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3, sentence 92

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Jurgen gave such a vague answer that it was not easy to make out what he meant--the old man brought Else to him, and she said:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jurgen, old man, Martin · **What happens:** give, not be, make out, mean, bring, say · **To what, where:** vague answer, Jurgen · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jurgen, old man, Martin), 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:pg27200:160:92
# text = Jurgen gave such a vague answer that it was not easy to make out what he meant--the old man brought Else to him, and she said:
1	Jurgen	Jurgen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	6	det:predet	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	vague	vague	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	expl	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	csubj	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
23	Else	else	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | Jurgen | such vague answer |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent answer=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | Jurgen *not said here* |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **make out** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **mean** | past | Jurgen |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 5 | **bring** | past | the old man |  | Jurgen |  |  | else *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to he=Destination |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Martin |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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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