---
title: I wish to goodness my head was through," said he, and instantly, tho… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: I wish to goodness my head was through," said he, and instantly, though it was so thick and large, it slipped through quite easily. Who acts: I, head, rain. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Eventful Moment--a Most Unusual Journey, with its dependency tree
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Eventful Moment--a Most Unusual Journey, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I wish to goodness my head was through," said he, and instantly, though it was so thick and large, it slipped through quite easily.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, head, rain · **What happens:** wish, be, say, slip through · **To what, where:** goodness · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Eventful Moment--a Most Unusual Journey. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, head, rain), 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:pg27200:43:11
# text = I wish to goodness my head was through," said he, and instantly, though it was so thick and large, it slipped through quite easily.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	goodness	goodness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	through	through	ADV	RB	_	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	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	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	instantly	instantly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	slipped	slip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
27	through	through	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** | present | I | goodness |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot goodness=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | my head |  |  |  |  | through *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | rain |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | past | head |  |  |  |  | instantly, thick *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** *in a quote* |  | head *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **slip through** *in a quote* | past | head |  |  |  |  | easily, through *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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