--- title: There were three persons who asserted they had penetrated to the end… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics description: There were three persons who asserted they had penetrated to the end of the forest, and that they had always heard the wonderful sounds of the bell, but it had seemed to them as if it had come from the town. Who acts: three persons, persons, it, Bell. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/18/11/) [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 Bell](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/18/) / 11 # Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Bell, sentence 11 There were three persons who asserted they had penetrated to the end of the forest, and that they had always heard the wonderful sounds of the bell, but it had seemed to them as if it had come from the town. **Who acts:** three persons, persons, it, Bell · **What happens:** be, assert, penetrate, hear, seem, come · **To what, where:** persons, town This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three persons, persons, it, Bell), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg1597:18:11 # text = There were three persons who asserted they had penetrated to the end of the forest, and that they had always heard the wonderful sounds of the bell, but it had seemed to them as if it had come from the town. 1 There there PRON EX PronType=Dem 2 expl _ _ 2 were be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 three three NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 4 nummod _ _ 4 persons person NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 nsubj _ _ 5 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 6 nsubj _ _ 6 asserted assert VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 acl:relcl _ _ 7 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 9 nsubj _ _ 8 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 aux _ _ 9 penetrated penetrate VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 6 ccomp _ _ 10 to to ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 end end NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ _ 13 of of ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 forest forest NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 22 cc _ _ 18 that that SCONJ IN _ 22 mark _ _ 19 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 22 nsubj:pass _ _ 20 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 22 aux _ _ 21 always always ADV RB PronType=Tot 22 advmod _ _ 22 heard hear VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 9 conj _ _ 23 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 24 wonderful wonderful ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 25 amod _ _ 25 sounds sound NOUN NNS Number=Plur 22 obj _ _ 26 of of ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 bell bell NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 30 but but CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 31 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 nsubj _ _ 32 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 33 aux _ _ 33 seemed seem VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ _ 34 to to ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 35 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 obl _ _ 36 as as SCONJ IN _ 40 mark _ _ 37 if if SCONJ IN _ 40 mark _ _ 38 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 40 nsubj _ _ 39 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 40 aux _ _ 40 come come VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 33 xcomp _ _ 41 from from ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 42 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 43 town town NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **be** | past | three persons | | | there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **assert** | past | three persons | | | | | | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 3 | **penetrate** | past · perfect | persons *= person* | | | | to the end of the forest | | vn poke-19 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **hear** | past · perfect · passive | | persons *= person* | | | | always *property* | tree rules | | 5 | **seem** | past | it | | persons *= person* | | | | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute | | 6 | **come** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | Bell | | | the town | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from town=Initial\_Location | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/18/10/) - next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/18/12/) - ↑ back to [The Bell](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/18/)