---
title: "Ah, yes; but you have the best of it," said the clerk; "it must be… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Ah, yes; but you have the best of it," said the clerk; "it must be so delightful to sit and write poetry. Who acts: you, clerk, it. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation, sentence 20

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"Ah, yes; but you have the best of it," said the clerk; "it must be so delightful to sit and write poetry.

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**Who acts:** you, clerk, it · **What happens:** have, say, be, sit, write · **To what, where:** best, poetry · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, clerk, it), 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:pg27200:44:20
# text = "Ah, yes; but you have the best of it," said the clerk; "it must be so delightful to sit and write poetry.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	clerk	clerk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	delightful	delightful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
29	poetry	poetry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | present | you | the best |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the clerk |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | must | it |  |  |  |  | delightful *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **sit** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **write** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | poetry |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poetry=Theme |

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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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