---
title: A long time passed, and people said to each other--“I wonder if ther… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A long time passed, and people said to each other--“I wonder if there is a church out in the wood? Who acts: long time, people, church. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Bell, sentence 6

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A long time passed, and people said to each other--“I wonder if there is a church out in the wood?

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**Who acts:** long time, people, church · **What happens:** pass, say, wonder, be out · **To what, where:** each, wood · **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 (long time, people, church), 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:pg1597:18:6
# text = A long time passed, and people said to each other--“I wonder if there is a church out in the wood?
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	8	obl	_	_
11	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	wonder	wonder	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
21	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | participle | a long time |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | people |  | each |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to each=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | present | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **be out** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | a church |  |  | the wood; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in wood=Location |

<!-- .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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