---
title: "I do not say so positively," observed the shadow; "but I am incline… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "I do not say so positively," observed the shadow; "but I am inclined to believe that he can do so. Who acts: shadow, prince. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/165/215/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Shadow](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/165/) / 215

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shadow, sentence 215

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I do not say so positively," observed the shadow; "but I am inclined to believe that he can do so.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** shadow, prince · **What happens:** not say, observe, incline, believe, do · **To what, where:** shadow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (shadow, prince), 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:pg27200:165:215
# text = "I do not say so positively," observed the shadow; "but I am inclined to believe that he can do so.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	positively	positively	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
10	observed	observe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	inclined	incline	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present · do-support | Your shadow *= shadow* |  |  |  |  | positively *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **observe** | past |  | the shadow |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent shadow=Topic |
| 3 | **incline** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | Your shadow *= shadow* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **believe** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **do** *in a quote* | can | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 214](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/165/214/)
- next →: [sentence 216](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/165/216/)
- ↑ back to [The Shadow](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/165/)