---
title: I thought of sticks as hobby-horses, staves of music or rhyme, of br… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I thought of sticks as hobby-horses, staves of music or rhyme, of breaking a stick over a man's back, and heaven knows how many more phrases of the same sort relating to sticks, staves, and skewers. Who acts: I, heaven, same sort. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Ander
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What the Second Mouse Had to Tell, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I thought of sticks as hobby-horses, staves of music or rhyme, of breaking a stick over a man's back, and heaven knows how many more phrases of the same sort relating to sticks, staves, and skewers.

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**Who acts:** I, heaven, same sort · **What happens:** think, break, know, relate, phrase · **To what, where:** stick, back, many more phrases, same sort

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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, heaven, same sort), 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:pg27200:180:65
# text = I thought of sticks as hobby-horses, staves of music or rhyme, of breaking a stick over a man's back, and heaven knows how many more phrases of the same sort relating to sticks, staves, and skewers.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	hobby	hobby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	staves	stave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	music	music	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	rhyme	rhyme	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	breaking	break	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	over	over	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	's	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
29	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
30	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
31	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	32	amod	_	_
32	phrases	phrase	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	_
37	relating	relate	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	36	acl	_	_
38	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
41	staves	stave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
44	skewers	skewer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | I |  |  |  |  | of sticks; as hobby horses and staves of music or rhyme | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **break** | gerund | I *not said here* | a stick |  | a man's back |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer stick=Patient |
| 3 | **know** | present | heaven | many more phrases of the same sort |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer phrase=Stimulus |
| 4 | **relate** | gerund | the same sort *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to sticks and staves | vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to stick=Co-Theme |
| 5 | **phrase** |  |  | the same sort |  |  |  |  | nom phrase «communication transitive»: of=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.

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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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