---
title: "It is midnight," said the soldier, "yet I should very much like to… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "It is midnight," said the soldier, "yet I should very much like to see the princess, if only for a moment." Who acts: light, midnight. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Tinder-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Tinder-box, sentence 72

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"It is midnight," said the soldier, "yet I should very much like to see the princess, if only for a moment."

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**Who acts:** light, midnight · **What happens:** be, say, like, see · **To what, where:** midnight, soldier, princess · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Tinder-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (light, midnight), 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:pg27200:193:72
# text = "It is midnight," said the soldier, "yet I should very much like to see the princess, if only for a moment."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	much	much	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	only	only	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | light | midnight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | midnight | the soldier |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **like** *in a quote* | should | midnight |  |  |  | yet |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **see** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | midnight *not said here* | the princess |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer princess=Stimulus |

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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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