---
title: "My betrothed has spoken so very highly of you, my little lady," sai… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "My betrothed has spoken so very highly of you, my little lady," said the tame crow, "your life-history, Vita, as it may be called, is very touching. Who acts: tame crow. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Prince and Princess, with its dependency tree and t
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/173/81/)

<!-- 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 Prince and Princess](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/173/) / 81

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Prince and Princess, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"My betrothed has spoken so very highly of you, my little lady," said the tame crow, "your life-history, Vita, as it may be called, is very touching.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tame crow · **What happens:** betroth, speak, say, call, touch · **To what, where:** history · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Prince and Princess. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tame crow), 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:pg27200:173:81
# text = "My betrothed has spoken so very highly of you, my little lady," said the tame crow, "your life-history, Vita, as it may be called, is very touching.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	betrothed	betroth	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	ccomp	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	highly	highly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	tame	tame	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
24	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	Vita	Vita	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
37	very	very	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	touching	touch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	34	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **betroth** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  |  |  |  |  | highly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the tame crow |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **call** *in a quote* | may · passive |  | history |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 5 | **touch** *in a quote* | present · progressive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- 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 80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/173/80/)
- next →: [sentence 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/173/82/)
- ↑ back to [The Prince and Princess](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/173/)