---
title: To him it seemed as if they were really engaged to each other, altho… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: To him it seemed as if they were really engaged to each other, although not a word had been spoken on the subject. Who acts: it. 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 clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Ib and Little Christina, sentence 109

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To him it seemed as if they were really engaged to each other, although not a word had been spoken on the subject.

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**Who acts:** it · **What happens:** seem, engage, speak · **To what, where:** Ib, lips, word, subject · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (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:pg27200:51:109
# text = To him it seemed as if they were really engaged to each other, although not a word had been spoken on the subject.
1	To	to	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
9	really	really	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	engaged	engage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	xcomp	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	10	obl	_	_
13	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	parataxis	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	subject	subject	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | it |  | Ib |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **engage** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | lips *= lip* |  |  |  | to each | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect · passive |  | a word |  | the subject |  |  | tree rules |

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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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