---
title: "He is the handsomest of them all," said the mamma stork, as she wat… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "He is the handsomest of them all," said the mamma stork, as she watched him; "but I won't tell him so." Who acts: good, handsomest, sign. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"He is the handsomest of them all," said the mamma stork, as she watched him; "but I won't tell him so."

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**Who acts:** good, handsomest, sign · **What happens:** be, say, watch, not tell · **To what, where:** mamma stork, good · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (good, handsomest, sign), 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:pg27200:85:55
# text = "He is the handsomest of them all," said the mamma stork, as she watched him; "but I won't tell him so."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	handsomest	handsome	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	mamma	mamma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	wo	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	parataxis	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | good |  |  |  |  | of wings *= wing*; handsome *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the handsomest | the mamma stork |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **watch** | past | sign | good |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | future | the handsomest *= handsome* |  | good |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

<!-- .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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