---
title: What is this? what does it mean?" said he; but he was obliged to dri… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: What is this? what does it mean?" said he; but he was obliged to drink with them, for they overpowered the good man with their politeness. Who acts: this, shiver, Counsellor, maids. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What Happened to the Counsellor, with its de
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What Happened to the Counsellor, sentence 112

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What is this? what does it mean?" said he; but he was obliged to drink with them, for they overpowered the good man with their politeness.

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**Who acts:** this, shiver, Counsellor, maids · **What happens:** be, mean, say, oblige, drink, overpower · **To what, where:** Counsellor, good man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What Happened to the Counsellor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this, shiver, Counsellor, maids), 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:pg27200:41:112
# text = What is this? what does it mean?" said he; but he was obliged to drink with them, for they overpowered the good man with their politeness.
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
6	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	overpowered	overpower	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	politeness	politeness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | this |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **mean** | present · do-support | shiver |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | Counsellor |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **oblige** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | Counsellor |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 5 | **drink** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | with maids *= maid* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **overpower** *in a quote* | past | maids *= maid* | the good man |  |  |  | with maids's politeness | tree rules |

<!-- .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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