---
title: Many, many years ago lived an emperor, who thought so much of new cl… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Many, many years ago lived an emperor, who thought so much of new clothes that he spent all his money in order to obtain them; his only ambition was to be always well dressed. Who acts: Many many years, emperor, he, his. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The E
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor's New Suit, sentence 1

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Many, many years ago lived an emperor, who thought so much of new clothes that he spent all his money in order to obtain them; his only ambition was to be always well dressed.

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**Who acts:** Many many years, emperor, he, his · **What happens:** live, think, spend, obtain, dress, ambition · **To what, where:** emperor, much, money, order, clothes, only ambition

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Emperor's New Suit. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Many many years, emperor, he, his), 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:pg27200:32:1
# text = Many, many years ago lived an emperor, who thought so much of new clothes that he spent all his money in order to obtain them; his only ambition was to be always well dressed.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
5	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	13	obl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	spent	spend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
20	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	ambition	ambition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux:pass	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
34	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	aux:pass	_	_
35	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	37	advmod	_	_
36	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	37	advmod	_	_
37	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | Many many years | a emperor |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme emperor=Location |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | a emperor | much |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent much=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 3 | **spend** | past | he | his money |  | order |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Asset |
| 4 | **obtain** | to-infinitive | he *not said here* | clothes |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset they=Theme |
| 5 | **dress** | past · passive |  | his only ambition |  |  |  | always, well *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 6 | **ambition** |  | his *= he* |  |  |  |  |  | nom ambition «feeling intransitive»: 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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