---
title: In spring, when the swallows and the storks came, the Tree asked the… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In spring, when the swallows and the storks came, the Tree asked them, “Don't you know where they have been taken? Who acts: swallows, Tree. 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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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, sentence 22

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In spring, when the swallows and the storks came, the Tree asked them, “Don't you know where they have been taken?

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**Who acts:** swallows, Tree · **What happens:** come, ask, not know, take · **To what, where:** swallows · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (swallows, Tree), 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:pg1597:10:22
# text = In spring, when the swallows and the storks came, the Tree asked them, “Don't you know where they have been taken?
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	swallows	swallow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	storks	stork	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Do	do	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
22	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	26	advmod	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the swallows and the storks |  |  |  | spring |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Tree |  | swallows *= swallow* |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support | swallows *= swallow* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **take** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | swallows *= swallow* |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «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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