---
title: It could only be used by one object at a time, which was a good thin… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It could only be used by one object at a time, which was a good thing, as a number speaking at once would have caused great confusion. Who acts: one object, number. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Goblin and the Huckster, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Goblin and the Huckster, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It could only be used by one object at a time, which was a good thing, as a number speaking at once would have caused great confusion.

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**Who acts:** one object, number · **What happens:** use, be, speak, cause · **To what, where:** tongue, good thing, great confusion · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Goblin and the Huckster. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one object, number), 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:pg27200:38:16
# text = It could only be used by one object at a time, which was a good thing, as a number speaking at once would have caused great confusion.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	object	object	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
22	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	22	obl	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux	_	_
27	caused	cause	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
28	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	confusion	confusion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | could · passive | one object at a time and a good thing | tongue |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | one object at a time and a good thing | a good thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | a number *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **cause** | would · perfect | a number | great confusion |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition confusion=Patient |

<!-- .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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