--- title: "We have a wife for him," said the gnats; "a hundred man-steps from… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics description: "We have a wife for him," said the gnats; "a hundred man-steps from here there is a little snail with a house, sitting on a gooseberry-bush; she is quite alone, and old enough to be married. Who acts: We, gnats, little snail, wife. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Ande --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/48/42/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Happy Family](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/48/) / 42 # Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Happy Family, sentence 42 "We have a wife for him," said the gnats; "a hundred man-steps from here there is a little snail with a house, sitting on a gooseberry-bush; she is quite alone, and old enough to be married. **Who acts:** We, gnats, little snail, wife · **What happens:** have, say, be, sit, marry · **To what, where:** wife, hundred man steps, gooseberry bush · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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, gnats, little snail, wife), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg27200:48:42 # text = "We have a wife for him," said the gnats; "a hundred man-steps from here there is a little snail with a house, sitting on a gooseberry-bush; she is quite alone, and old enough to be married. 1 " " PUNCT `` _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 We we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 have have VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 10 ccomp _ _ 4 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 5 wife wife NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obj _ _ 6 for for ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 7 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 9 " " PUNCT '' _ 3 punct _ _ 10 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 gnats gnat NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 13 ; ; PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 14 " " PUNCT `` _ 19 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 15 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 hundred hundred NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 19 nummod _ _ 17 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 18 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 17 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 19 steps step NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 ccomp _ _ 20 from from ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 21 here here ADV RB PronType=Dem 19 nmod _ _ 22 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 23 expl _ _ 23 is be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 19 acl:relcl _ _ 24 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 25 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 amod _ _ 26 snail snail NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 nsubj _ _ 27 with with ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 28 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 house house NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 31 sitting sit VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 26 acl _ _ 32 on on ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 33 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 34 gooseberry gooseberry NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 35 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 34 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 36 bush bush NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 37 ; ; PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 38 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 nsubj _ _ 39 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 41 cop _ _ 40 quite quite ADV RB _ 41 advmod _ _ 41 alone alone ADV RB _ 10 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 42 , , PUNCT , _ 44 punct _ _ 43 and and CCONJ CC _ 44 cc _ _ 44 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 parataxis _ _ 45 enough enough ADV RB _ 44 advmod _ _ 46 to to PART TO _ 48 mark _ _ 47 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 48 aux:pass _ _ 48 married marry VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 44 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 49 . . PUNCT . _ 10 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **have** *in a quote* | present | We | a wife | | | | for wood | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Patient | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the gnats | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 3 | **be** *in a quote* | present | a little snail with a house | hundred man steps *not said here* | | there | | | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot step=Theme | | 4 | **sit** *in a quote* | gerund | a little snail with a house *not said here* | | | a gooseberry bush | | | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on bush=Location | | 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | wife | | | | | alone *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **marry** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · passive | the gnats *not said here* | | | | | | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V» | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/48/41/) - next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/48/43/) - ↑ back to [The Happy Family](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/48/)