---
title: "What can he want it for?" thought Great Claus; so he smeared the bo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "What can he want it for?" thought Great Claus; so he smeared the bottom of the measure with tar, that some of whatever was put into it might stick there and remain. Who acts: Claus, Great, measure. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Claus and Big Claus,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Claus and Big Claus, sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"What can he want it for?" thought Great Claus; so he smeared the bottom of the measure with tar, that some of whatever was put into it might stick there and remain.

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**Who acts:** Claus, Great, measure · **What happens:** want, think, smear, put, stick, remain · **To what, where:** measure, bottom, some · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Claus and Big Claus. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Claus, Great, measure), 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:pg27200:71:98
# text = "What can he want it for?" thought Great Claus; so he smeared the bottom of the measure with tar, that some of whatever was put into it might stick there and remain.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	Great	Great	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	Claus	Claus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	smeared	smear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	measure	measure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	tar	tar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
26	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nmod	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
31	into	into	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	stick	stick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
35	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	34	advmod	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** *in a quote* | can | Claus | measure |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme it=Attribute |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Great |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **smear** | past | Claus | the bottom of the measure with tar |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent bottom=Theme |
| 4 | **put** | past · passive |  | some |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: subject=Goal |
| 5 | **stick** | might | measure |  |  | there |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **remain** | infinitive | measure *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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