---
title: “The Greeks and Romans,” said the old man, “called her a Dryad; but… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “The Greeks and Romans,” said the old man, “called her a Dryad; but that we do not understand. Who acts: Greeks, old man, we. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Elderbush, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Elderbush, sentence 36

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“The Greeks and Romans,” said the old man, “called her a Dryad; but that we do not understand.

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**Who acts:** Greeks, old man, we · **What happens:** say, call, not understand · **To what, where:** name · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Greeks, old man, we), 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:pg1597:17:36
# text = “The Greeks and Romans,” said the old man, “called her a Dryad; but that we do not understand.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Greeks	Greek	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	Romans	Roman	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
15	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Dryad	Dryad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Greeks and Romans |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **call** *in a quote* | past | the old man *not said here* |  | name |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 3 | **not** **understand** *in a quote* | present · do-support | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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