---
title: But then you were once the prettiest girl in Viborg, and that is say… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But then you were once the prettiest girl in Viborg, and that is saying a great deal, for I have always found the Viborg girls the prettiest of any." Who acts: you, prettiest girl, I. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 5, with 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 5, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But then you were once the prettiest girl in Viborg, and that is saying a great deal, for I have always found the Viborg girls the prettiest of any."

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**Who acts:** you, prettiest girl, I · **What happens:** be, say, find · **To what, where:** prettiest girl, Viborg, great deal · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, prettiest girl, I), 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:pg27200:162:29
# text = But then you were once the prettiest girl in Viborg, and that is saying a great deal, for I have always found the Viborg girls the prettiest of any."
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	8	advmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	amod	_	_
8	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Viborg	Viborg	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	acl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	24	advmod	_	_
24	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	Viborg	Viborg	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	ccomp	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | you | the prettiest girl |  | Viborg | then | once *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present · progressive | the prettiest girl | a great deal |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent deal=Topic |
| 3 | **find** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: 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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