---
title: However, he said that the sound proceeded from a very large owl, in… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: However, he said that the sound proceeded from a very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of learned owl, that continually knocked its head against the branches. Who acts: One, sound, sort. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Bell, sentence 15

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However, he said that the sound proceeded from a very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of learned owl, that continually knocked its head against the branches.

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**Who acts:** One, sound, sort · **What happens:** say, proceed, learn, knock, sort · **To what, where:** large owl, that, learned owl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (One, sound, sort), 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:pg1597:18:15
# text = However, he said that the sound proceeded from a very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of learned owl, that continually knocked its head against the branches.
1	However	however	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	proceeded	proceed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	hollow	hollow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	learned	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	obj	_	_
27	continually	continually	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
29	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	against	against	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | One |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **proceed** | past | the sound |  |  | a large owl |  | in a hollow tree | vn begin-55.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **learn** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **knock** | past | a sort of learned owl | that |  |  |  | against the branches; continually *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent that=Destination head=Theme |
| 5 | **sort** |  |  | learned owl |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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