---
title: The family had the Chinaman's back mended, and a strong rivet put th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The family had the Chinaman's back mended, and a strong rivet put through his neck; he looked as good as new, but he could no longer nod his head. Who acts: family, back, strong rivet. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep, with its d
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/166/76/)

<!-- 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 Shepherdess and the Sheep](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/166/) / 76

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The family had the Chinaman's back mended, and a strong rivet put through his neck; he looked as good as new, but he could no longer nod his head.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** family, back, strong rivet · **What happens:** have, mend, put, look, nod · **To what, where:** neck, head

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (family, back, strong rivet), 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:pg27200:166:76
# text = The family had the Chinaman's back mended, and a strong rivet put through his neck; he looked as good as new, but he could no longer nod his head.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Chinaman	Chinaman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	mended	mend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	rivet	rivet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
15	through	through	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
29	no	no	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	31	advmod	_	_
31	nod	nod	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the family |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **mend** | past | the Chinaman's back |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **put** | participle | a strong rivet |  |  | family's neck |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent through neck=Destination |
| 4 | **look** | past | family |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **nod** | could | family | family's head |  |  |  | long *property* | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |

<!-- .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 75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/166/75/)
- next →: [sentence 77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/166/77/)
- ↑ back to [The Shepherdess and the Sheep](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/166/)