---
title: I had no confidence in either of them, least of all in the owl, whic… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I had no confidence in either of them, least of all in the owl, which is like a cat, and has a great failing, for she eats mice. Who acts: I, owl, cat. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Fourth Mouse, Who Spoke Before the Third, Had to Tell, with its d
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What the Fourth Mouse, Who Spoke Before the Third, Had to Tell, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I had no confidence in either of them, least of all in the owl, which is like a cat, and has a great failing, for she eats mice.

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**Who acts:** I, owl, cat · **What happens:** have, be, eat · **To what, where:** confidence, either, great failing, mice

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Fourth Mouse, Who Spoke Before the Third, 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, owl, cat), 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:pg27200:181:31
# text = I had no confidence in either of them, least of all in the owl, which is like a cat, and has a great failing, for she eats mice.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	confidence	confidence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	either	either	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	2	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	2	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	like	like	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	failing	failing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	eats	eat	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
32	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | I | no confidence |  | either |  | in the owl and a cat; least *obl* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent confidence=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | present | the owl and a cat |  |  |  |  | like a cat | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | present |  | a great failing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent failing=Patient |
| 4 | **eat** | present | cat | mice |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=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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