---
title: "Our dear son has engaged himself," said one mother, "dear innocent… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Our dear son has engaged himself," said one mother, "dear innocent boy; his greatest ambition is that he may one day creep into a clergyman's ear. Who acts: one mother, greatest ambition, boy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Trave
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Our dear son has engaged himself," said one mother, "dear innocent boy; his greatest ambition is that he may one day creep into a clergyman's ear.

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**Who acts:** one mother, greatest ambition, boy · **What happens:** engage, say, be, ambition · **To what, where:** dear son, day creep, ear · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one mother, greatest ambition, boy), 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:pg27200:8:61
# text = "Our dear son has engaged himself," said one mother, "dear innocent boy; his greatest ambition is that he may one day creep into a clergyman's ear.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	engaged	engage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	ccomp	_	_
7	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	innocent	innocent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	amod	_	_
21	ambition	ambition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	creep	creep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
29	into	into	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	clergyman	clergyman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	's	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **engage** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | Our dear son |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer himself=Result |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | one mother and dear innocent boy and day creep |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | may · present | boy's greatest ambition | day creep |  | a clergyman's ear |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **ambition** *in a quote* |  | boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom ambition «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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