---
title: "'But it was not this very velvet!' observed the footman, and a smil… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "'But it was not this very velvet!' observed the footman, and a smile played about his mouth. ' Who acts: church, velvet. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Fifth Evening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Fifth Evening, sentence 8

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"'But it was not this very velvet!' observed the footman, and a smile played about his mouth. '

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**Who acts:** church, velvet · **What happens:** not be, observe, play · **To what, where:** velvet, footman, smile

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Fifth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (church, velvet), 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:pg27200:96:8
# text = "'But it was not this very velvet!' observed the footman, and a smile played about his mouth. '
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	velvet	velvet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
12	observed	observe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	footman	footman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
19	played	play	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	about	about	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
24	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | past | church | this velvet |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **observe** *in a quote* | past | this velvet | the footman |  |  |  | a smile *obl* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent footman=Topic |
| 3 | **play** *in a quote* | participle |  | a smile *not said here* |  |  |  | about velvet's mouth | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=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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