---
title: It seemed as if the whole art lay in the boy's fingers; and he wante… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed as if the whole art lay in the boy's fingers; and he wanted to be more than a drummer--he wanted to become musician to the town. Who acts: It, whole art, art. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Golden Treasure, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Golden Treasure, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It seemed as if the whole art lay in the boy's fingers; and he wanted to be more than a drummer--he wanted to become musician to the town.

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**Who acts:** It, whole art, art · **What happens:** seem, lie, want, be, become · **To what, where:** fingers, musician

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Golden Treasure. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, whole art, art), 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:pg27200:39:42
# text = It seemed as if the whole art lay in the boy's fingers; and he wanted to be more than a drummer--he wanted to become musician to the town.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	art	art	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	's	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
20	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	obj	_	_
21	than	than	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	drummer	drummer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	musician	musician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	xcomp	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **lie** | past | the whole art |  |  | the boy's fingers |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in finger=Location |
| 3 | **want** | past | art |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | than a drummer; more *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **want** | past | art |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **become** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | art *not said here* | musician to the town |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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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