---
title: His parents at home had not even a penny to spare to buy a newspaper… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: His parents at home had not even a penny to spare to buy a newspaper, much less could they write in one; and worse than all, his father's name, and of course his own, ended in "sen," and therefore he could never turn out well, which was a very sad thought. Who acts: parents, boy, father. A sentence 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Children's Prattle, sentence 23

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His parents at home had not even a penny to spare to buy a newspaper, much less could they write in one; and worse than all, his father's name, and of course his own, ended in "sen," and therefore he could never turn out well, which was a very sad thought.

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**Who acts:** parents, boy, father · **What happens:** have, spare, buy, write, end, not turn out · **To what, where:** penny, newspaper, sen, sad thought

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Children's Prattle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (parents, boy, father), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg27200:18:23
# text = His parents at home had not even a penny to spare to buy a newspaper, much less could they write in one; and worse than all, his father's name, and of course his own, ended in "sen," and therefore he could never turn out well, which was a very sad thought.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
7	even	even	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	newspaper	newspaper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	21	advmod	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	conj	_	_
27	than	than	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	's	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	fixed	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
41	ended	end	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	44	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	sen	sen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	44	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
48	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
49	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
50	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	52	aux	_	_
51	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	52	advmod	_	_
52	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	conj	_	_
53	out	out	ADP	RP	_	52	compound:prt	_	_
54	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	52	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
56	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	61	nsubj	_	_
57	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	61	cop	_	_
58	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
59	very	very	ADV	RB	_	60	advmod	_	_
60	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
61	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | boy's parents at home | a penny |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent penny=Patient |
| 2 | **spare** | to-infinitive | boy's parents at home *not said here* | a penny *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **buy** | to-infinitive | boy's parents at home *not said here* | a newspaper |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent newspaper=Theme |
| 4 | **write** | could | parents *= parent* |  |  |  |  | in one; less *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in one=Destination |
| 5 | **end** | past |  |  |  | sen |  | of boy's own | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **not** **turn out** | could | boy |  |  |  |  | therefore, well *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **is a** | past |  | a sad thought |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **name** |  | boy's father |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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