---
title: But guessing was of very little use; it made his bark ache, and this… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But guessing was of very little use; it made his bark ache, and this pain is as bad for a slender fir-tree, as headache is for us. Who acts: guessing, use, pain, headache. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Fir Tree, sentence 70

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But guessing was of very little use; it made his bark ache, and this pain is as bad for a slender fir-tree, as headache is for us.

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**Who acts:** guessing, use, pain, headache, top · **What happens:** guess, be, make, ache · **To what, where:** bark ache

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (guessing, use, pain, headache), 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:pg27200:33:70
# text = But guessing was of very little use; it made his bark ache, and this pain is as bad for a slender fir-tree, as headache is for us.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	guessing	guess	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	csubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl:relcl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	ache	ache	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	as	as	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
23	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
24	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	headache	headache	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
30	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guess** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | guessing |  |  |  |  | of little use | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** | past | use | top's bark ache |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material ache=Product |
| 4 | **is** | present | this pain |  |  |  |  | for a slender fir tree; bad *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | present | headache |  |  |  |  | for us | tree rules |
| 6 | **ache** |  | top |  |  |  |  |  | nom ache «state 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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