---
title: The boy searched everywhere for it, but he searched in vain, for it… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The boy searched everywhere for it, but he searched in vain, for it could not be found; it was gone. Who acts: boy, more. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Top and Ball, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Top and Ball, sentence 24

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The boy searched everywhere for it, but he searched in vain, for it could not be found; it was gone.

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**Who acts:** boy, more · **What happens:** search, not find, be · **To what, where:** vain, more

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Top and Ball. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, more), 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:pg27200:195:24
# text = The boy searched everywhere for it, but he searched in vain, for it could not be found; it was gone.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **search** | past | the boy |  |  |  |  | for more; everywhere *property* | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for it=Theme |
| 2 | **search** | past | boy |  |  | vain |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in vain=Location |
| 3 | **not** **find** | could · passive |  | more |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 4 | **is** | past | more |  |  |  |  | gone *property* | tree rules |

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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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