---
title: But the best thing of all was that the merchant Bronne, of Skjagen,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the best thing of all was that the merchant Bronne, of Skjagen, into whose service Jurgen had proposed entering the year before, was just at that time on business in the town of Ringkjobing. Who acts: merchant. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story Fro
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 4, sentence 63

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But the best thing of all was that the merchant Bronne, of Skjagen, into whose service Jurgen had proposed entering the year before, was just at that time on business in the town of Ringkjobing.

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**Who acts:** merchant · **What happens:** propose, enter, be, service · **To what, where:** best thing, business

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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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant), 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:pg27200:161:63
# text = But the best thing of all was that the merchant Bronne, of Skjagen, into whose service Jurgen had proposed entering the year before, was just at that time on business in the town of Ringkjobing.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	nmod	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	Bronne	Bronne	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Skjagen	Skjagen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
19	Jurgen	Jurgen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	proposed	propose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
22	entering	enter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl:unmarked	_	_
25	before	before	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
28	just	just	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	31	det	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	Ringkjobing	Ringkjobing	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **propose** | past · perfect · passive |  | the best thing of all |  |  |  |  | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **enter** | gerund |  |  |  |  | year | before *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  | business in the town of Ringkjobing | at that time |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **service** |  | the merchant and the merchant and service's service |  |  |  |  |  | nom service «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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