---
title: "There can be nothing better than we have here," said the father-sna… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "There can be nothing better than we have here," said the father-snail; "I wish for nothing more." Who acts: we, father snail. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Happy Family, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Happy Family, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"There can be nothing better than we have here," said the father-snail; "I wish for nothing more."

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**Who acts:** we, father snail · **What happens:** be, have, say, wish · **To what, where:** nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Happy Family. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, father snail), 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:pg27200:48:24
# text = "There can be nothing better than we have here," said the father-snail; "I wish for nothing more."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	13	nsubj	_	_
6	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
7	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
10	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	snail	snail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	21	obl	_	_
24	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  | here |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the father snail |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **wish** *in a quote* | present | the father snail *= snail* |  |  |  |  | for nothing | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for nothing=Theme |

<!-- .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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