---
title: "I learnt something about it in my childhood," he replied; "and beli… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "I learnt something about it in my childhood," he replied; "and believe that even my very shadow, standing over there by the door, could answer it." Who acts: prince, princess, shadow, my. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shadow, sentence 213

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I learnt something about it in my childhood," he replied; "and believe that even my very shadow, standing over there by the door, could answer it."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, princess, shadow, my · **What happens:** learn, reply, believe, stand over, answer, shadow · **To what, where:** something, childhood, shadow, question · **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 (prince, princess, shadow, my), 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:pg27200:165:213
# text = "I learnt something about it in my childhood," he replied; "and believe that even my very shadow, standing over there by the door, could answer it."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	learnt	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obj	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	childhood	childhood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	believe	believe	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
19	even	even	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	very	very	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
25	over	over	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
27	by	by	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** *in a quote* | past | prince | something |  | my childhood |  | about question | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **believe** *in a quote* | infinitive | the princess *= princess* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **stand over** *in a quote* | gerund | my shadow *not said here* |  |  | there |  | by the door | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by door=Location |
| 5 | **answer** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | could | the princess *= princess* *not said here* | my shadow | question |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 6 | **shadow** *in a quote* |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: poss=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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