---
title: The door is only ajar; the shadow ought to be clever enough to step… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The door is only ajar; the shadow ought to be clever enough to step in and look about him, and then to come back and tell me what he has seen. Who acts: door, shadow, man. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shadow, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The door is only ajar; the shadow ought to be clever enough to step in and look about him, and then to come back and tell me what he has seen.

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**Who acts:** door, shadow, man · **What happens:** be, step in, look, come back, tell, see · **To what, where:** me · **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 (door, shadow, man), 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:pg27200:165:34
# text = The door is only ajar; the shadow ought to be clever enough to step in and look about him, and then to come back and tell me what he has seen.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	ajar	ajar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
12	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
13	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	step	step	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
16	in	in	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
19	about	about	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
26	back	back	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
29	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	iobj	_	_
30	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	33	obj	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the door |  |  |  |  | ajar *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | ought | the shadow |  |  |  |  | clever, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **step in** | to-infinitive | the shadow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **look** | infinitive | the shadow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about man | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent about he=Theme |
| 5 | **come back** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 7 | **see** | present · perfect | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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