---
title: But she only said this to frighten Jack the Dullard; and the clerks… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But she only said this to frighten Jack the Dullard; and the clerks gave a great crow of delight, and each one spurted a blot out of his pen on to the floor. Who acts: use, clerks, one. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, An Old Story Told Anew, with its depende
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, An Old Story Told Anew, sentence 94

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But she only said this to frighten Jack the Dullard; and the clerks gave a great crow of delight, and each one spurted a blot out of his pen on to the floor.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** use, clerks, one · **What happens:** say, frighten, give, spurt · **To what, where:** this, Jack, great crow, blot, pen · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, An Old Story Told Anew. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (use, clerks, one), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:28:94
# text = But she only said this to frighten Jack the Dullard; and the clerks gave a great crow of delight, and each one spurted a blot out of his pen on to the floor.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	frighten	frighten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
8	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Dullard	Dullard	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	clerks	clerk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	delight	delight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	det	_	_
24	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	spurted	spurt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	blot	blot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	pen	pen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | use | this |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent this=Topic |
| 2 | **frighten** | to-infinitive | use *not said here* | Jack |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus jack=Experiencer dullard=Result |
| 3 | **give** | past | the clerks | a great crow of delight |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crow=Theme |
| 4 | **spurt** | participle | each one | a blot |  | Dullard's pen |  | on the floor | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent blot=Theme out pen=Destination |

<!-- .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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