---
title: "Listen to what I say," said the magician, "you must choose somethin… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Listen to what I say," said the magician, "you must choose something very easy, he is less likely to guess it then. Who acts: magician, you. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 3, sentence 1

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"Listen to what I say," said the magician, "you must choose something very easy, he is less likely to guess it then.

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**Who acts:** magician, you · **What happens:** listen, say, choose, be, guess · **To what, where:** something, it · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (magician, you), 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:pg27200:198:1
# text = "Listen to what I say," said the magician, "you must choose something very easy, he is less likely to guess it then.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	2	obl	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	magician	magician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
17	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	16	obj	_	_
18	very	very	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	24	advmod	_	_
24	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to what=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | the magician *= magician* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the magician |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **choose** *in a quote* | must | you | something |  |  |  | easy *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Theme |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | magician |  |  |  |  | less, likely *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **guess** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | magician *not said here* | it |  |  | then |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

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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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