---
title: Being a princess, she was not obliged to stand upon much ceremony, s… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Being a princess, she was not obliged to stand upon much ceremony, so she said to him without hesitation, "Your illness consists in not being able to cast a shadow." Who acts: disease, illness. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its dependency 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shadow, sentence 190

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Being a princess, she was not obliged to stand upon much ceremony, so she said to him without hesitation, "Your illness consists in not being able to cast a shadow."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** disease, illness · **What happens:** be, not oblige, stand, say, consist, not be · **To what, where:** princess, much ceremony, gentleman, shadow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (disease, illness), 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:pg27200:165:190
# text = Being a princess, she was not obliged to stand upon much ceremony, so she said to him without hesitation, "Your illness consists in not being able to cast a shadow."
1	Being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	cop	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	ceremony	ceremony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	without	without	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	hesitation	hesitation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	illness	illness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	consists	consist	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
29	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	cop	_	_
30	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	ccomp	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	cast	cast	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | gerund |  | a princess |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **oblige** | past · passive |  | a princess |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 3 | **stand** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | much ceremony |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon ceremony=Location |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | disease |  | gentleman |  |  | without hesitation | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 5 | **consist** *in a quote* | present | Your illness |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | gerund | Your illness *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **cast** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Your illness *not said here* | a shadow |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shadow=Product |

<!-- .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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