---
title: There was once a merchant who was so rich that he could have paved t… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a merchant who was so rich that he could have paved the whole street with gold, and would even then have had enough for a small alley. Who acts: merchant. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flying Trunk, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flying Trunk, sentence 1

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There was once a merchant who was so rich that he could have paved the whole street with gold, and would even then have had enough for a small alley.

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**Who acts:** merchant · **What happens:** be, pave, have · **To what, where:** whole street

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flying Trunk. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant), 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:pg27200:35:1
# text = There was once a merchant who was so rich that he could have paved the whole street with gold, and would even then have had enough for a small alley.
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	5	det	_	_
5	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
14	paved	pave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
23	even	even	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
27	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	alley	alley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a merchant |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | a merchant |  |  |  |  | rich *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **pave** | could · perfect | merchant | the whole street |  |  |  | with gold | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent street=Destination with gold=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | would · perfect |  |  |  |  | then | for a small alley; enough *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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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