---
title: Happy even was he who was born a hundred years ago, for then there w… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Happy even was he who was born a hundred years ago, for then there was still something about which a poem could be written. Who acts: something. 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 7

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Happy even was he who was born a hundred years ago, for then there was still something about which a poem could be written.

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**Who acts:** something · **What happens:** bear, be, write · **To what, where:** man, poem

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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 (something), 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:pg27200:206:7
# text = Happy even was he who was born a hundred years ago, for then there was still something about which a poem could be written.
1	Happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	even	even	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	advcl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
15	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	16	expl	_	_
16	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
17	still	still	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	16	nsubj	_	_
19	about	about	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	obl	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	poem	poem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | past · passive |  | man |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **be** | past | something |  |  | there | then |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **write** | could · passive |  | a poem |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient about which=Topic |

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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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