---
title: The poor old minister tried his very best, but he could see nothing,… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor old minister tried his very best, but he could see nothing, for there was nothing to be seen. " Who acts: poor old minister, minister, nothing. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Emperor's New Suit, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/22/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Emperor's New Suit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/) / 22

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor's New Suit, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The poor old minister tried his very best, but he could see nothing, for there was nothing to be seen. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor old minister, minister, nothing · **What happens:** try, see, be · **To what, where:** best, nothing

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (poor old minister, minister, nothing), 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:pg27200:32:22
# text = The poor old minister tried his very best, but he could see nothing, for there was nothing to be seen. "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
14	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
19	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	nsubj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | the poor old minister | minister's best |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |
| 2 | **see** | could | minister | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **be** | past | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive · passive | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V» |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/21/)
- next →: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/23/)
- ↑ back to [The Emperor's New Suit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/)