---
title: In the court-yard some of the merry children were playing who had da… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In the court-yard some of the merry children were playing who had danced at Christmas round the Fir Tree, and were so glad at the sight of him. Who acts: some. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/197/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, sentence 197

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In the court-yard some of the merry children were playing who had danced at Christmas round the Fir Tree, and were so glad at the sight of him.

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**Who acts:** some · **What happens:** play, dance, be, sight · **To what, where:** Christmas, sight, Tree

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (some), 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:pg1597:10:197
# text = In the court-yard some of the merry children were playing who had danced at Christmas round the Fir Tree, and were so glad at the sight of him.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
6	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	danced	dance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	round	round	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	Fir	Fir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	parataxis	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past · progressive | some |  |  |  |  | in the court yard | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **dance** | past · perfect |  |  |  | Christmas |  | round the Fir Tree | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at christmas=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  | the sight of Tree |  | glad *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **sight** |  |  | Tree |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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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