--- title: He looked upon God's creation as a great sum in arithmetic--subtract… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: He looked upon God's creation as a great sum in arithmetic--subtracted, multiplied, and tried to know it within and without, and to talk with understanding concerning it; and that was a very sensible thing; and he spoke joyously and cleverly of it. Who acts: God, understanding, that. A sentence of « --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/121/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Toad](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/) / 121 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Toad, sentence 121 He looked upon God's creation as a great sum in arithmetic--subtracted, multiplied, and tried to know it within and without, and to talk with understanding concerning it; and that was a very sensible thing; and he spoke joyously and cleverly of it. **Who acts:** God, understanding, that · **What happens:** look, subtract, multiply, try, know, talk · **To what, where:** searcher, sensible thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Toad. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (God, understanding, that), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:194:121 # text = He looked upon God's creation as a great sum in arithmetic--subtracted, multiplied, and tried to know it within and without, and to talk with understanding concerning it; and that was a very sensible thing; and he spoke joyously and cleverly of it. 1 He he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 2 nsubj _ _ 2 looked look VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 upon upon ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 4 God God PROPN NNP Number=Sing 6 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 5 's 's PART POS _ 4 case _ _ 6 creation creation NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 obl _ _ 7 as as ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 8 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 9 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 amod _ _ 10 sum sum NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 obl _ _ 11 in in ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 12 arithmetic arithmetic ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 13 -- -- PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 14 subtracted subtract VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 12 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 16 multiplied multiply VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 14 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 17 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 18 and and CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 19 tried try VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 20 to to PART TO _ 21 mark _ _ 21 know know VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 19 xcomp _ _ 22 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 obj _ _ 23 within within ADP IN _ 21 ccomp _ _ 24 and and CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 25 without without ADP IN _ 23 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 27 and and CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 28 to to PART TO _ 29 mark _ _ 29 talk talk VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 21 conj _ _ 30 with with ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 31 understanding understanding NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obl _ _ 32 concerning concern VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 31 acl _ _ 33 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 32 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 34 ; ; PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 36 that that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 41 nsubj _ _ 37 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 41 cop _ _ 38 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 39 very very ADV RB _ 40 advmod _ _ 40 sensible sensible ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 41 amod _ _ 41 thing thing NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 42 ; ; PUNCT : _ 45 punct _ _ 43 and and CCONJ CC _ 45 cc _ _ 44 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 45 nsubj _ _ 45 spoke speak VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ _ 46 joyously joyously ADV RB _ 45 advmod _ _ 47 and and CCONJ CC _ 48 cc _ _ 48 cleverly cleverly ADV RB _ 46 conj _ _ 49 of of ADP IN _ 50 case _ _ 50 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 48 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 51 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **look** | past | God | | | | | upon God's creation; as a great sum in arithmetic | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent upon creation=Theme | | 2 | **subtract** | participle | God *not said here* | | | | | | vn multiply-108-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **multiply** | participle | God *not said here* | | | | | | vn birth-28.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **try** | past | God *not said here* | | | | | | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 5 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | God *not said here* | searcher | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus | | 6 | **talk** | to-infinitive | God *not said here* | | | | | with understanding | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with understanding=Co-Agent | | 7 | **concern** | gerund | understanding *not said here* | searcher | | | | | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer | | 8 | **is a** | past | that | a sensible thing | | | | | tree rules | | 9 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | God | | | | | joyously *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 10 | **create** | | God | | | | | | nom creation «act transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/120/) - next →: [sentence 122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/122/) - ↑ back to [The Toad](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/)