---
title: He could not utter a word; he could only seize her hand and hold it… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He could not utter a word; he could only seize her hand and hold it fast in his own, but he felt too happy and glad to open his lips. Who acts: Ib. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He could not utter a word; he could only seize her hand and hold it fast in his own, but he felt too happy and glad to open his lips.

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**Who acts:** Ib · **What happens:** not utter, seize, hold, feel, open · **To what, where:** word, hand, own, lips

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Ib and Little Christina. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ib), 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:pg27200:51:104
# text = He could not utter a word; he could only seize her hand and hold it fast in his own, but he felt too happy and glad to open his lips.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	utter	utter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	seize	seize	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	too	too	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **utter** *speech: other* | could | Ib | a word |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 2 | **seize** | could | Ib | carriage's hand |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 3 | **hold** | infinitive | Ib *not said here* | word |  | Ib's own |  | fast *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme in own=Location |
| 4 | **feel** | past | Ib |  |  |  |  | happy *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **open** | to-infinitive | Ib *not said here* | Ib's lips |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location lip=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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