---
title: You could make yourself useful in this way," said he, jokingly; "be… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: You could make yourself useful in this way," said he, jokingly; "be so good as to step in now, will you?" and then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow nodded in return. " Who acts: You, man, shadow. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow, with its de
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shadow, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
You could make yourself useful in this way," said he, jokingly; "be so good as to step in now, will you?" and then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow nodded in return. "

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**Who acts:** You, man, shadow · **What happens:** make, say, be, step, nod · **To what, where:** yourself, 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 (You, man, shadow), 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:pg27200:165:35
# text = You could make yourself useful in this way," said he, jokingly; "be so good as to step in now, will you?" and then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow nodded in return. "
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	useful	useful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	jokingly	jokingly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	step	step	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	csubj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	33	advmod	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	nodded	nod	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
41	nodded	nod	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	conj	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
45	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | could | You | yourself |  |  |  | useful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | man |  |  |  |  | jokingly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | infinitive | You *not said here* |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **step** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in now=Trajectory |
| 5 | **nod** *in a quote* | past | man |  | the shadow |  | then |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to shadow=Recipient |
| 6 | **nod** *in a quote* | participle | the shadow |  |  |  |  | in return | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in return=Theme |

<!-- .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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