---
title: Ask the cat, he is the cleverest animal I know, ask him how he would… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Ask the cat, he is the cleverest animal I know, ask him how he would like to swim about on the water, or to dive under it, for I will not speak of my own opinion; ask our mistress, the old woman--there is no one in the world more clever than she is. Who acts: you, cat, I, mistress. A sentence of «Fa
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 110

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Ask the cat, he is the cleverest animal I know, ask him how he would like to swim about on the water, or to dive under it, for I will not speak of my own opinion; ask our mistress, the old woman--there is no one in the world more clever than she is.

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**Who acts:** you, cat, I, mistress, my · **What happens:** ask, be, know, like, swim, dive · **To what, where:** cat, cleverest animal, water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, cat, I, mistress), 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:pg27200:201:110
# text = Ask the cat, he is the cleverest animal I know, ask him how he would like to swim about on the water, or to dive under it, for I will not speak of my own opinion; ask our mistress, the old woman--there is no one in the world more clever than she is.
1	Ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	cleverest	clever	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	amod	_	_
9	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	ccomp	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	about	about	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	dive	dive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
29	under	under	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
34	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
35	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	36	advmod	_	_
36	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
39	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	opinion	opinion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
42	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
43	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	51	expl	_	_
51	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	58	cop	_	_
52	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	53	det	_	_
53	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nsubj	_	_
54	in	in	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nmod	_	_
57	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	58	advmod	_	_
58	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	ccomp	_	_
59	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	61	mark	_	_
60	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	61	nsubj	_	_
61	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	58	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | imperative | you *not said here* |  | the cat |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent cat=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | present | cat | the cleverest animal |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **know** | present | I | the cleverest animal *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer animal=Stimulus |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  | cat |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **like** *not said to happen* | would | cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **swim** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | cat *not said here* |  |  | the water |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on water=Trajectory |
| 7 | **dive** | to-infinitive | cat *not said here* |  |  |  |  | under animal | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under it=Location |
| 8 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | future | I |  |  |  |  | of my own opinion | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 10 | **is** | present | our mistress |  |  |  |  | clever *property* | tree rules |
| 11 | **opine** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom opinion «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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