---
title: Then he wanted to be a little bird, and in this change he lost the c… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he wanted to be a little bird, and in this change he lost the characteristics of the former one. " Who acts: nature. 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 87

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Then he wanted to be a little bird, and in this change he lost the characteristics of the former one. "

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**Who acts:** nature · **What happens:** want, be, lose · **To what, where:** little bird, characteristics, change

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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 (nature), 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:pg27200:44:87
# text = Then he wanted to be a little bird, and in this change he lost the characteristics of the former one. "
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
13	change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	characteristics	characteristic	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | nature |  |  |  | then |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **is a** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | nature *not said here* | a little bird |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **lose** | past | nature | the characteristics of the former one |  | this change |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent characteristic=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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