---
title: We might imagine it to be no jesting matter if the soul of the man s… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: We might imagine it to be no jesting matter if the soul of the man should chance to return to him, for most probably it would seek for the body in East Street without being able to find it. Who acts: We, soul, notice. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Watc
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Watchman's Adventures, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We might imagine it to be no jesting matter if the soul of the man should chance to return to him, for most probably it would seek for the body in East Street without being able to find it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** We, soul, notice · **What happens:** imagine, be, chance, return, seek, find · **To what, where:** notice, jesting matter, man

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Watchman's Adventures. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, soul, notice), 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:pg27200:42:86
# text = We might imagine it to be no jesting matter if the soul of the man should chance to return to him, for most probably it would seek for the body in East Street without being able to find it.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
7	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	det	_	_
8	jesting	jesting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	xcomp	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	28	obl	_	_
25	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	East	East	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	Street	Street	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
35	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
36	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	37	cop	_	_
37	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	advcl	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	xcomp	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **imagine** | might | We | notice |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot it=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive | We *not said here* | no jesting matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **chance** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | the soul of the man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **return** | to-infinitive | We *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to he=Result |
| 5 | **seek** | would | notice |  |  |  |  | for most; for the body in East Street; probably *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for most=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | gerund | notice *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **find** | to-infinitive | notice *not said here* | notice |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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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