---
title: "I could have expressed that better," thought the critic; but he did… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "I could have expressed that better," thought the critic; but he did not say it aloud, which for him was SOMETHING, after all. Who acts: critic, earth. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop, 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/pg27200/177/213/)

<!-- 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 Snowdrop](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/177/) / 213

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Snowdrop, sentence 213

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I could have expressed that better," thought the critic; but he did not say it aloud, which for him was SOMETHING, after all.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** critic, earth · **What happens:** express, think, not say, be · **To what, where:** critic, SOMETHING · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (critic, earth), 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:pg27200:177:213
# text = "I could have expressed that better," thought the critic; but he did not say it aloud, which for him was SOMETHING, after all.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux	_	_
5	expressed	express	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
10	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	critic	critic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	aloud	aloud	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	SOMETHING	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	after	after	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **express** *in a quote* | could · perfect | the critic *= critic* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the critic |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | past · do-support | earth | critic |  |  |  | aloud *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | SOMETHING |  |  | after all |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 212](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/177/212/)
- next →: [Soup From a Sausage Skewer, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/178/1/)
- ↑ back to [The Snowdrop](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/177/)