---
title: The priest had nothing to defend himself with, but the knife he had… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The priest had nothing to defend himself with, but the knife he had taken from Helga, and with this he struck out right and left. Who acts: priest. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 4, sentence 44

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The priest had nothing to defend himself with, but the knife he had taken from Helga, and with this he struck out right and left.

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**Who acts:** priest · **What happens:** have, defend, take, strike out, leave · **To what, where:** nothing, priest, knife, Helga

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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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (priest), 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:pg27200:86:44
# text = The priest had nothing to defend himself with, but the knife he had taken from Helga, and with this he struck out right and left.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	defend	defend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Helga	Helga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	obl	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
24	out	out	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	right	right	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the priest | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 2 | **defend** | to-infinitive | the priest *not said here* | priest |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **take** | past · perfect · passive |  | the knife |  | Helga |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: subject=Theme from helga=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **strike out** | past | priest |  |  |  |  | with this; out, right *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with this=Theme |
| 5 | **leave** | past | priest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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