---
title: "Who art thou?" he asked, "whose outward appearance is that of an an… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Who art thou?" he asked, "whose outward appearance is that of an animal, while thou willingly performest acts of mercy?" Who acts: handsomest, outward appearance, thou, mercy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3, with its depen
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/85/95/)

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3, sentence 95

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"Who art thou?" he asked, "whose outward appearance is that of an animal, while thou willingly performest acts of mercy?"

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**Who acts:** handsomest, outward appearance, thou, mercy · **What happens:** ask, be, perform, act · **To what, where:** acts · **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 (handsomest, outward appearance, thou, mercy), 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:pg27200:85:95
# text = "Who art thou?" he asked, "whose outward appearance is that of an animal, while thou willingly performest acts of mercy?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
4	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	outward	outward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nsubj	_	_
22	willingly	willingly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	performest	perform	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
24	acts	act	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | handsomest *= handsome* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | that animal's outward appearance |  |  |  |  | of that animal | tree rules |
| 3 | **perform** *in a quote* | present | thou | acts of mercy |  |  |  | willingly *property* | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent act=Theme |
| 4 | **act** *in a quote* |  | mercy |  |  |  |  |  | nom act «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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