---
title: First comes the band of sparrows: they pipe at every trifle in the s… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: First comes the band of sparrows: they pipe at every trifle in the streets and lanes, in the nests and the houses; they have stories to tell about the front buildings and the back buildings. Who acts: sparrows. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bird of Pop
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bird of Popular Song, sentence 40

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First comes the band of sparrows: they pipe at every trifle in the streets and lanes, in the nests and the houses; they have stories to tell about the front buildings and the back buildings.

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**Who acts:** sparrows · **What happens:** come, pipe, have, tell · **To what, where:** band, trifle, stories · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (sparrows), 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:pg27200:11:40
# text = First comes the band of sparrows: they pipe at every trifle in the streets and lanes, in the nests and the houses; they have stories to tell about the front buildings and the back buildings.
1	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	2	advmod	_	_
2	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	band	band	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	pipe	pipe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
12	trifle	trifle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	lanes	lane	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	nests	nest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
28	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl	_	_
31	about	about	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	front	front	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	buildings	building	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	buildings	building	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | present |  | the band of sparrows |  |  |  | first *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location band=Theme |
| 2 | **pipe** |  | sparrows *= sparrow* |  |  | every trifle in the streets and lanes and the nests and the houses |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | present | sparrows *= sparrow* | stories |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Patient |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | sparrows *= sparrow* *not said here* | stories *not said here* |  |  |  | about the front buildings and the back buildings | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent about building=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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