---
title: "Because I held fast," answered Rudy; "and I mean to hold fast to Ba… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Because I held fast," answered Rudy; "and I mean to hold fast to Babette." Who acts: Rudy, miller. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VIII. What Fresh News the Parlor-cat Had to Tell, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, VIII. What Fresh News the Parlor-cat Had to Tell, sentence 10

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"Because I held fast," answered Rudy; "and I mean to hold fast to Babette."

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**Who acts:** Rudy, miller · **What happens:** hold, answer, mean · **To what, where:** Babette · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VIII. What Fresh News the Parlor-cat Had to Tell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Rudy, miller), 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:pg27200:59:10
# text = "Because I held fast," answered Rudy; "and I mean to hold fast to Babette."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	Rudy	Rudy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Babette	Babette	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** *in a quote* | past | Rudy |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Rudy |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **mean** *in a quote* | present | the miller *= miller* |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **hold** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | the miller *= miller* *not said here* |  | Babette |  |  | fast *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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