---
title: In the days of knightly castles, when the strongest fist held the sc… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In the days of knightly castles, when the strongest fist held the scales of justice, when only might was right, and a peasant and a dog were of equal importance, where did the Bird of Song find shelter and protection? Who acts: strongest fist, peasant. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian An
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bird of Popular Song, sentence 26

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In the days of knightly castles, when the strongest fist held the scales of justice, when only might was right, and a peasant and a dog were of equal importance, where did the Bird of Song find shelter and protection?

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**Who acts:** strongest fist, peasant · **What happens:** hold, be, do, find · **To what, where:** scales, Bird, shelter

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bird of Popular Song. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (strongest fist, peasant), 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:pg27200:11:26
# text = In the days of knightly castles, when the strongest fist held the scales of justice, when only might was right, and a peasant and a dog were of equal importance, where did the Bird of Song find shelter and protection?
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	knightly	knightly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	castles	castle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	strongest	strong	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	amod	_	_
11	fist	fist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	scales	scale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	justice	justice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	22	mark	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	equal	equal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	importance	importance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	36	advmod	_	_
36	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	advcl	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	Bird	Bird	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	Song	Song	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	_
41	find	find	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	parataxis	_	_
42	shelter	shelter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
44	protection	protection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | the strongest fist | the scales of justice |  |  | day |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scale=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | might |  |  |  |  |  | right *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | a peasant and a dog |  |  |  |  | of equal importance | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | past |  | the Bird of Song |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Eventuality |
| 5 | **find** | present |  | shelter and protection |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shelter=Topic |

<!-- .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:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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