---
title: Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they asked… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they asked about it could give them any information--none of them had been boiled or laid on a silver dish. Who acts: chafers. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Happy Family, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/20/8/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Happy Family](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/20/) / 8

# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Happy Family, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they asked about it could give them any information--none of them had been boiled or laid on a silver dish.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** chafers · **What happens:** ask, give, boil, lay · **To what, where:** earth worms, information, snails, none, silver dish

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (chafers), 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:pg1597:20:8
# text = Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they asked about it could give them any information--none of them had been boiled or laid on a silver dish.
1	Neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	3	cc:preconj	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	chafers	chafer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	toads	toad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	12	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	worms	worm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	obj	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	information	information	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	boiled	boil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	parataxis	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	conj	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	dish	dish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | chafers *= chafer* |  | the earth worms |  |  | about house | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent whom=Recipient about it=Topic |
| 2 | **give** | could | the chafers and the toads nor the earth worms | any information | snails *= snail* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient information=Theme |
| 3 | **boil** | past · perfect · passive |  | none |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **lay** | participle |  |  |  | a silver dish |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/20/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/20/9/)
- ↑ back to [The Happy Family](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/20/)