---
title: First came a dozen drummers, who understood pretty well how to handl… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: First came a dozen drummers, who understood pretty well how to handle their instruments; then came halberdiers, and some armed with cross-bows. Who acts: dozen drummers. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 1, sentence 48

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First came a dozen drummers, who understood pretty well how to handle their instruments; then came halberdiers, and some armed with cross-bows.

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**Who acts:** dozen drummers · **What happens:** come, understand, handle · **To what, where:** dozen drummers, instruments, halberdiers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dozen drummers), 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:pg1597:5:48
# text = First came a dozen drummers, who understood pretty well how to handle their instruments; then came halberdiers, and some armed with cross-bows.
1	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	2	advmod	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	dozen	dozen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	drummers	drummer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
9	pretty	pretty	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	advmod	_	_
11	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	handle	handle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	instruments	instrument	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	halberdiers	halberdier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	armed	armed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	cross-bows	cross-bow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past |  | a dozen drummers |  |  |  | first *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location drummer=Theme |
| 2 | **understand** | past | a dozen drummers |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **handle** | to-infinitive |  | drummers's instruments |  |  |  | well *property* | vn hold-15.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent instrument=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | past |  | halberdiers |  |  | then |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location halberdier=Theme |

<!-- .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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