---
title: The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or not, or if he had been listening while someone told him the story. Who acts: little boy, boy, someone. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/144/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Andersen's Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/) / [The Elderbush](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/) / 144

# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elderbush, sentence 144

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or not, or if he had been listening while someone told him the story.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little boy, boy, someone · **What happens:** lie, not know, dream, listen, tell · **To what, where:** bed, story, boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little boy, boy, someone), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg1597:17:144
# text = The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or not, or if he had been listening while someone told him the story.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	dreamed	dream	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	aux	_	_
25	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
26	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	28	nsubj	_	_
28	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	iobj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | the little boy |  |  | boy's bed |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in bed=Location |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **dream** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **listen** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · progressive | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | someone | the story | boy |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient story=Topic |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 143](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/143/)
- next →: [sentence 145](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/145/)
- ↑ back to [The Elderbush](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/17/)