---
title: The present time is good, it is the best of times; but you have not… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The present time is good, it is the best of times; but you have not the right way of looking at it. Who acts: present time, poet, you, right way. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What One Can Invent, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What One Can Invent, sentence 27

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The present time is good, it is the best of times; but you have not the right way of looking at it.

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**Who acts:** present time, poet, you, right way · **What happens:** be, have, look · **To what, where:** right way

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What One Can Invent. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (present time, poet, you, right way), 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:pg27200:206:27
# text = The present time is good, it is the best of times; but you have not the right way of looking at it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
21	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the present time |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | poet |  |  |  | time | good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | present | you | the right way |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |
| 4 | **look** | gerund | the right way *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at poet | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at 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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