---
title: If the world were only a little more settled," said he: "but sometim… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: If the world were only a little more settled," said he: "but sometimes I'm obliged to be in a good humor, and sometimes a bad one, according to circumstances; now rain, now sunshine. Who acts: world. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Mail-coach Passengers,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Mail-coach Passengers, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If the world were only a little more settled," said he: "but sometimes I'm obliged to be in a good humor, and sometimes a bad one, according to circumstances; now rain, now sunshine.

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**Who acts:** world · **What happens:** be, say, oblige, accord · **To what, where:** fourth, good humor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Mail-coach Passengers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (world), 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:pg27200:82:43
# text = If the world were only a little more settled," said he: "but sometimes I'm obliged to be in a good humor, and sometimes a bad one, according to circumstances; now rain, now sunshine.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	advmod	_	_
9	settled	settled	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	20	advmod	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	'm	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	ccomp	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	humor	humor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
29	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	32	advmod	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	according	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	36	case	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	fixed	_	_
36	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	39	advmod	_	_
39	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	42	advmod	_	_
42	sunshine	sunshine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the world |  |  |  |  | settled *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **oblige** | present · passive |  | fourth |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | a good humor and rain and sunshine |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=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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