---
title: Father Snail could not speak, he was too much affected; and so they… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Father Snail could not speak, he was too much affected; and so they gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole forest of burdocks, and said--what they had always said--that it was the best in the world; and if they lived honestly and decently, and increased and multiplied, they and their childr
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Happy Family, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Father Snail could not speak, he was too much affected; and so they gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole forest of burdocks, and said--what they had always said--that it was the best in the world; and if they lived honestly and decently, and increased and multiplied, they and their children would once in the course of time come to the manor-house, be boiled black, and laid on silver dishes.

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**Who acts:** Father Snail, snails, noise, burdock · **What happens:** not speak, affect, give, say, be, live · **To what, where:** whole, noise, world, course, silver dishes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Happy Family. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Father Snail, snails, noise, burdock), 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:pg1597:20:56
# text = Father Snail could not speak, he was too much affected; and so they gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole forest of burdocks, and said--what they had always said--that it was the best in the world; and if they lived honestly and decently, and increased and multiplied, they and their children would once in the course of time come to the manor-house, be boiled black, and laid on silver dishes.
1	Father	Father	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	Snail	snail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
9	too	too	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	affected	affect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	dowry	dowry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	inheritance	inheritance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	burdocks	burdock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	37	obj	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	37	advmod	_	_
37	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	37	parataxis	_	_
44	in	in	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
49	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	51	mark	_	_
50	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
51	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
52	honestly	honestly	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	decently	decently	ADV	RB	_	52	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
56	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
57	increased	increase	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
58	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	59	cc	_	_
59	multiplied	multiply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	57	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	72	punct	_	_
61	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	65	nsubj	_	_
62	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	65	cc	_	_
63	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	64	nmod:poss	_	_
64	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	65	nsubj	_	_
65	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	72	aux	_	_
66	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	65	advmod	_	_
67	in	in	ADP	IN	_	69	case	_	_
68	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	69	det	_	_
69	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	72	obl	_	_
70	of	of	ADP	IN	_	71	case	_	_
71	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	69	nmod	_	_
72	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
73	to	to	ADP	IN	_	77	case	_	_
74	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	77	det	_	_
75	manor	manor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	77	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
76	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	75	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
77	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	72	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
78	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	80	punct	_	_
79	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	80	aux:pass	_	_
80	boiled	boil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	72	parataxis	_	_
81	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	80	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
82	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	84	punct	_	_
83	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	84	cc	_	_
84	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	80	conj	_	_
85	on	on	ADP	IN	_	87	case	_	_
86	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	87	compound	_	_
87	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	84	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
88	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | could | Father Snail |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **affect** | past · passive |  | whole |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 3 | **give** | past | snails *= snail* |  | noise |  |  | as a dowry and inheritance and the whole forest of burdocks | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | snails *= snail* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | noise |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 6 | **is** | past | burdock |  |  | the world |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **live** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | noise |  |  |  |  | honestly *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **increase** | past | snails *= snail* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 9 | **multiply** | past | snails *= snail* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 10 | **come** | would | Father Snail *not said here* |  |  | the course of time |  | to the manor house | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to house=Initial\_Location |
| 11 | **boil** | infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  | black *property* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V» |
| 12 | **lay** | participle |  |  |  | silver dishes |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on dish=Destination |

<!-- .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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