---
title: A troop of negroes are returning from a market in the interior of th… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: A troop of negroes are returning from a market in the interior of the land: the women, with copper buttons in their black hair, and decked out in clothes dyed with indigo, drive the heavily-laden oxen, on whose backs slumber the naked black children. Who acts: troop, backs. A sentence of «Fairy Tale
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twentieth Evening, sentence 19

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A troop of negroes are returning from a market in the interior of the land: the women, with copper buttons in their black hair, and decked out in clothes dyed with indigo, drive the heavily-laden oxen, on whose backs slumber the naked black children.

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**Who acts:** troop, backs · **What happens:** return, deck out, dye, drive, lade, slumber · **To what, where:** women, market, clothes, laden oxen, naked black children

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twentieth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (troop, backs), 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:pg27200:111:19
# text = A troop of negroes are returning from a market in the interior of the land: the women, with copper buttons in their black hair, and decked out in clothes dyed with indigo, drive the heavily-laden oxen, on whose backs slumber the naked black children.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	troop	troop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	negroes	negro	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	returning	return	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	market	market	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	interior	interior	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	copper	copper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	buttons	button	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	decked	deck	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	_
30	out	out	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	29	obl	_	_
33	dyed	dye	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	acl	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	indigo	indigo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	parataxis	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
39	heavily	heavily	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	laden	lade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	42	amod	_	_
42	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
44	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
45	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nsubj	_	_
47	slumber	slumber	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	conj	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
49	naked	naked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	amod	_	_
50	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	amod	_	_
51	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | present · progressive | a troop of negroes | the women and copper buttons in buttons's black hair |  | a market in the interior of the land |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from market=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **deck out** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | in clothes | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent in clothes=Theme |
| 3 | **dye** | participle |  | clothes *not said here* |  |  |  | with indigo | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **drive** | infinitive |  | the laden oxen |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme ox=Trajectory |
| 5 | **lade** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | heavily *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **slumber** | present | backs | the naked black children |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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