---
title: There was once a darning-needle who thought herself so fine that she… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a darning-needle who thought herself so fine that she fancied she must be fit for embroidery. " Who acts: darning needle, needle. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Darning-needle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Darning-needle, sentence 1

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There was once a darning-needle who thought herself so fine that she fancied she must be fit for embroidery. "

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**Who acts:** darning needle, needle · **What happens:** be, think, fancy · **To what, where:** needle

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Darning-needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (darning needle, needle), 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:pg27200:21:1
# text = There was once a darning-needle who thought herself so fine that she fancied she must be fit for embroidery. "
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	darning	darning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	obj	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	fancied	fancy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
19	fit	fit	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	embroidery	embroidery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a darning needle |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | a darning needle | needle |  |  |  | fine *property* | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot herself=Theme |
| 3 | **fancy** | past | needle |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | must | needle |  |  |  |  | for embroidery; fit *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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