---
title: Then she asked him a most difficult question, she herself could not… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then she asked him a most difficult question, she herself could not have answered it, and the shadow made a most unaccountable grimace. Who acts: Water, shadow. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shadow, sentence 211

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Then she asked him a most difficult question, she herself could not have answered it, and the shadow made a most unaccountable grimace.

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**Who acts:** Water, shadow · **What happens:** ask, not answer, make · **To what, where:** difficult question, prince, Water, question, unaccountable grimace

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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 (Water, shadow), 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:pg27200:165:211
# text = Then she asked him a most difficult question, she herself could not have answered it, and the shadow made a most unaccountable grimace.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
11	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux	_	_
15	answered	answer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	24	advmod	_	_
24	unaccountable	unaccountable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	grimace	grimace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Water | a difficult question | prince |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | could · perfect · passive |  | Water | question |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Theme it=Eventuality |
| 3 | **make** | past | the shadow | a unaccountable grimace |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset grimace=Product |

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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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