---
title: I remembered a few of these books, they had always appeared tempting… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I remembered a few of these books, they had always appeared tempting to the appetite; they had been much read, and were so greasy, that they must have absorbed no end of emotions in themselves. Who acts: I, novels. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Se
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What the Second Mouse Had to Tell, sentence 58

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I remembered a few of these books, they had always appeared tempting to the appetite; they had been much read, and were so greasy, that they must have absorbed no end of emotions in themselves.

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**Who acts:** I, novels · **What happens:** remember, appear, tempt, be, absorb · **To what, where:** few, novels

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Second Mouse Had to Tell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, novels), 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:pg27200:180:58
# text = I remembered a few of these books, they had always appeared tempting to the appetite; they had been much read, and were so greasy, that they must have absorbed no end of emotions in themselves.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	12	advmod	_	_
12	appeared	appear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
13	tempting	tempt	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	xcomp	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	appetite	appetite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	cop	_	_
21	much	much	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	greasy	greasy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux	_	_
33	absorbed	absorb	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	conj	_	_
34	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	35	det	_	_
35	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	emotions	emotion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remember** | past | I | a few of this books |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent few=Theme |
| 2 | **appear** | past · perfect | novels *= novel* |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **tempt** | gerund | novels *= novel* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the appetite | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | past · perfect | novels *= novel* |  |  |  |  | read *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | greasy *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **absorb** | must · perfect · passive |  | novels *= novel* |  |  |  |  | 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.

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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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